To live is enough.

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

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.

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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 real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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.

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.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

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

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

When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.

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.

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.