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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

Our practice cannot be perfect, but without being discouraged by this, we should continue it. This is the secret of practice.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Just to be alive is enough.

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.

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

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

Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don't serve them tea.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The role of Zen is neither to stand above life nor to run away from it, but to face it with a spirit of determination.

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

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

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.

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.

In the spring, hundreds of flowers; in autumn, a harvest moon; in the summer, a refreshing breeze; in winter, snow will accompany you. If useless things do not hang in your mind, any season is a good season for you.

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

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

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.