All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddha.

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

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

Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don't serve them tea.

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

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

To live is enough.

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

Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.

When you practice zazen you should not try to attain anything. You should just sit in the complete calmness of your mind and not rely on anything.

Zen is a way of life, not a theory or a piece of knowledge to be stored away in our minds.

When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

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

In Zen there must be satori; there must be a general mental upheaval which destroys the old accumulations of intellection and lays down the foundation for a new life.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.

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

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

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

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

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

Life is an art, and like perfect art it should be self-forgetting.

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

What Zen wants us to do is to acquire an entirely new point of view whereby to look into the mysteries of life and the secrets of nature.

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

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.

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

The dharma wheel turns from the beginning. There is neither excess nor deficiency. The whole universe is moistened with nectar, and the truth is ready to harvest.

Even if you speak of 'understanding,' this understanding is not a matter of knowledge. It is what fills the entire body and mind.

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma.

The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.

Instead of having a deep understanding of the teaching, we need a strong confidence in our teaching, which says that originally we have Buddha nature.

Personal experience is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience.

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

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

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

In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they have contracted themselves into a single moment of the present where life quivers in its true sense.

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

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

The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment.

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

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.

If you want to climb a mountain, begin at the top.

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

The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech.

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

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

Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring wood: all these I do in Zen.