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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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.

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life is an art, and like perfect art it should be self-forgetting.

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

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

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

When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions.

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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 obstacle is the path.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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.

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

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

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

What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.