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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

To live is enough.

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.

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

The real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

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

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