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

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.

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

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 obstacle is the path.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

To live is enough.

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.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

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

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

The time of the past becomes the present, the time of the present becomes the future, the time of the future becomes the present, and the time of the present becomes the past.

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.

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