Zen is a way of life, not a theory or a piece of knowledge to be stored away in our minds.

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

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

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The awareness that you are here, right now, is the ultimate fact.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The world is its own magic.

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.

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

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

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

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

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 real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

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

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

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

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

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

To live is enough.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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.

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.

To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfection.

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

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

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.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.