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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

The obstacle is the path.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

The treasure house within you contains everything, and you are free to use it. You don't need to seek outside.

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

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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 menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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