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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

The world is its own magic.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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.

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

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

When walking, just walk. When sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.