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

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

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.

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma.

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

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

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

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

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

What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.

The farther you enter into truth, the deeper it is.

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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 mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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

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

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

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