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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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 live is enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points.

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.