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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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.

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

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

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?

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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.

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.

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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