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

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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.

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

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

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.

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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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.

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

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

To live is enough.

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

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring wood: all these I do in Zen.

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

The mind is like a well-forged sword - it adapts to all situations.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Personal experience is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience.

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

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

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

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.

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