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

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.

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you intuit dharma intimately.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

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

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

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

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

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

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

To live is enough.

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

The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense.

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.

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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.

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

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.