Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen as though you are saving your head from fire.
In a snowfall that covers the winter grass a white heron uses his own whiteness to disappear.
Do not practice buddha-dharma with the thought that it is to benefit others.
Students today should live fully every moment of time. This dew-like life fades away; time speeds swiftly. In this short life of ours, avoid involvement in superfluous things and just study the Way.
Realization doesn’t destroy the individual any more than the reflection of the moon breaks a drop of water. A drop of water can reflect the whole sky.
A zen master’s life is one continuous mistake.
Nothing in the entire universe is hidden.
Coming, going, the waterbirds don’t leave a trace, don’t follow a path.
Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech.
Do not miss the opportunity of offering even a single drop into the ocean of merit or a grain atop the mountain of the roots of beneficial activity.
Every man possesses the Buddha-nature. Do not demean yourselves.
When the old plum tree blooms, the entire world blooms.
That the self advances and confirms the ten thousand things is called delusion; that the ten thousand things advance and confirm the self is called enlightenment.
Clearly I know, the mind is mountains, rivers, and the great earth; sun, moon, and stars.
The recognition of the coming and going of things is a first step in training and practice.
What is the way of the Buddha? It is to study the self. What is the study of the self? It is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to be enlightened by everything in the world.
When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself from it.
Since it is the practice of enlightenment, that practice has no beginning and since it is enlightenment within the practice, that realization has no end.
If you want to do a certain thing, you first have to be a certain person. Once you become that certain person, you will not care anymore about doing that certain thing.
Does a dragon still sing from within a withered tree?