When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Buddha and all sentient beings are nothing but expressions of the one mind. There is nothing else.

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

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.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

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

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

Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points.

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

To live is enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.