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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

To live is enough.

When you practice zazen you should not try to attain anything. You should just sit in the complete calmness of your mind and not rely on anything.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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 obstacle is the path.

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

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.

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.

Just to be alive is enough.

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

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

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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