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

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.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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.

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.

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

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.

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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.

Instead of having a deep understanding of the teaching, we need a strong confidence in our teaching, which says that originally we have Buddha nature.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.