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

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

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

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

Zen is a way of life, not a theory or a piece of knowledge to be stored away in our minds.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

The menu is not the meal.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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.

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

The awareness that you are here, right now, is the ultimate fact.

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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.

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?

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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.

Everybody has the light of Buddha within, but they don't look for it.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.