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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure.

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

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

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

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.

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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?

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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.