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

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?

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

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.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

The menu is not the meal.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

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

To live is enough.

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

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

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

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.