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

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

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.

When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions.

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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.

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.

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

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.

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 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.

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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 practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.

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.

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.

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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The real purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.

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

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.

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

Instead of having a deep understanding of the teaching, we need a strong confidence in our teaching, which says that originally we have Buddha nature.

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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.

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?