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

When you practice zazen you should not try to attain anything. You should just sit in the complete calmness of your mind and not rely on anything.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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 forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

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.

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

The world is its own magic.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience, which in its very nature transcends linguistics.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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.

To live is enough.

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

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

The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment.

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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.

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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