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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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?

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

Zen proposes its solution by directly appealing to facts of personal experience and not to book-knowledge.

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

To live is enough.

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

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

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

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

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

The obstacle is the path.

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