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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

When walking, just walk. When sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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