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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

To live is enough.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Each of you is perfect the way you are... and you can use a little improvement.

The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull's-eye which confronts him. This state of unconsciousness is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill.

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

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

When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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.

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

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

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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.

This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

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

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

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.