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

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

The obstacle is the path.

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.

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

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

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

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

The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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

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

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.

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 true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The superior person is like water, bringing benefit to all without competing.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

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

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.