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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

The more you suffer the deeper grows your character, and with the deepening of your character you read the more penetratingly into the secrets of life.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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 mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don't serve them tea.