When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything.

As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

Birth and death are neither two things nor one thing. Life is not an appearance, death is not a disappearance.

When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

The real purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.

Intrinsically all living beings are Buddhas, just as ice and water are of the same substance.

To live is enough.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

Our practice cannot be perfect, but without being discouraged by this, we should continue it. This is the secret of practice.

The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.

When the mind is ready to understand, the truth will come to meet it.

Zen is not necessarily against words, but it is well aware of their limitations.

The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.

Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.

The true path is not difficult; just avoid picking and choosing.

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure.

Where is the place that your original face has not yet emerged?

Without darkness, there is no light. Without the path, there is no arrival.

The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.

The world is its own magic.

To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.

The Buddha and all sentient beings are nothing but expressions of the one mind. There is nothing else.

The real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

When you are you, Zen is Zen. Big mind is just big mind.

The awareness that you are here, right now, is the ultimate fact.

The mind of the past is ungraspable; the mind of the future is ungraspable; the mind of the present is ungraspable.

This very body is the Buddha. And this very earth the lotus paradise.

Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.

The ocean does not reject any water; therefore it is great. The mountain does not select its stones; therefore it is great.

When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions.

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

The menu is not the meal.

Where there is great doubt, there is great awakening; small doubt, small awakening; no doubt, no awakening.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

The way is basically perfect. It is not a matter of practice or enlightenment.

Just to be alive is enough.

The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense.

The mind is like a well-forged sword - it adapts to all situations.

The most important things in our practice are our physical posture and our way of breathing.

To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

The treasure house within you contains everything, and you are free to use it. You don't need to seek outside.

The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease.

When walking, just walk. When sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.

The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency, or change.

When dharma fills your body and mind, you realize that something is missing.

The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do this in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded.

The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.

Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

To live – is that not enough? To love – is that not everything?

Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points.

Your own treasure house contains everything you need; why search outside?