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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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.

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

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

The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.

Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

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

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

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.

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

To live is enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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?

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.

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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.

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.

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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.

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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