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

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

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

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.

To live is enough.

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

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

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

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

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma.

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

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

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?

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

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.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Everybody has the light of Buddha within, but they don't look for it.

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

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

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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.

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.