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

Just to be alive is enough.

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.

The superior person is like water, bringing benefit to all without competing.

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?

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

In the spring, hundreds of flowers; in autumn, a harvest moon; in the summer, a refreshing breeze; in winter, snow will accompany you. If useless things do not hang in your mind, any season is a good season for you.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.

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

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 contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience, which in its very nature transcends linguistics.

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

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

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.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To what shall I compare this life? It is like a boat that left at dawn, leaving no trace.

To live is enough.

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.

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

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

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.

The true person is not anyone in particular. But like the deep blue color of the limitless sky, it is everyone, everywhere in the world.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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