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?

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

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.

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

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 true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.

To live is enough.

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

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