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

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.

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

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?

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

The truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act, not merely to reflect.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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 real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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.

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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