Just to be alive is enough.

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfection.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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