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.

To live is enough.

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

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

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 path is not difficult; just avoid picking and choosing.

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

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

When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you intuit dharma intimately.

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

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.

Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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?

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

Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.

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 menu is not the meal.

The world is its own magic.

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

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.

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

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

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

Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don't serve them tea.

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

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

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

Zen proposes its solution by directly appealing to facts of personal experience and not to book-knowledge.

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.

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.