We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

The world is its own magic.

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.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

The obstacle is the path.

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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.

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

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

When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

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.

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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.

To live is enough.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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