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

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.

Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.

To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfection.

The farther you enter into truth, the deeper it is.

To live is enough.

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.

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

What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.

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.

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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.

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

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.

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

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

Zen proposes its solution by directly appealing to facts of personal experience and not to book-knowledge.

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

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

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

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

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.

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

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

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

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.

In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.

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

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

Buddhas and ordinary beings are not two. Enlightenment and delusion are not different paths.

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

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

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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 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.

The role of Zen is neither to stand above life nor to run away from it, but to face it with a spirit of determination.

The truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act, not merely to reflect.

Everybody has the light of Buddha within, but they don't look for it.

Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks.

When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you intuit dharma intimately.