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

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

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

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.

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

To live is enough.

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease.

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

The treasure house within you contains everything, and you are free to use it. You don't need to seek outside.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

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.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

The world is its own magic.

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.

If you want to climb a mountain, begin at the top.

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

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.

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 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.

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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