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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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 is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.

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?

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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.

Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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 real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

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.

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

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

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 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.

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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