In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they have contracted themselves into a single moment of the present where life quivers in its true sense.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

To live is enough.

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.

The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

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.

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.