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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.

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

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

The real purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

Birth and death are neither two things nor one thing. Life is not an appearance, death is not a disappearance.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To live is enough.

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

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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.

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

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.

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

The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.

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

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

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.