The time of the past becomes the present, the time of the present becomes the future, the time of the future becomes the present, and the time of the present becomes the past.

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

The more you suffer the deeper grows your character, and with the deepening of your character you read the more penetratingly into the secrets of life.

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

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

At the bottom of great doubt lies great awakening. If you doubt fully, you will awaken fully.

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?

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.

The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.

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

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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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.

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

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

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

The eye with which I see Buddha is the same eye with which Buddha sees me.

Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself.

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

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

To live is enough.

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

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

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

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.

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

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