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

The superior person is like water, bringing benefit to all without competing.

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

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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.

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

This very body is the Buddha. And this very earth the lotus paradise.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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.

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.

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind.