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

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

The way is basically perfect. It is not a matter of practice or enlightenment.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.

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

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.

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

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

To live is enough.

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

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

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

The dharma wheel turns from the beginning. There is neither excess nor deficiency. The whole universe is moistened with nectar, and the truth is ready to harvest.

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

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

The farther you enter into truth, the deeper it is.

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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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.

The more you suffer the deeper grows your character, and with the deepening of your character you read the more penetratingly into the secrets of life.

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

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.

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

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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