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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.

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

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

Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your 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.

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.

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.

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

To live is enough.

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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