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

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

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

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

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

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 live is enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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.

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

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

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

Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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.

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

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

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

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.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The obstacle is the path.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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.

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

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