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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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.

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

The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.