If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

To what shall I compare this life? It is like a boat that left at dawn, leaving no trace.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

To live is enough.

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

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

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

Without darkness, there is no light. Without the path, there is no arrival.

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.

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

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

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.

Time passes unhindered. When we make ourselves better, we make the world better.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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