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.

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddha.

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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

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.

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

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 true person is not anyone in particular. But like the deep blue color of the limitless sky, it is everyone, everywhere in the world.

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

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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.

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

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

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

Time passes unhindered. When we make ourselves better, we make the world better.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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