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

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

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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.

Intrinsically all living beings are Buddhas, just as ice and water are of the same substance.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

The obstacle is the path.

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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.