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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

The Buddha and all sentient beings are nothing but expressions of the one mind. There is nothing else.

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.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

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.

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

When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

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

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?

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

When dharma fills your body and mind, you realize that something is missing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.