Building character is like making bread – you have to mix it little by little, step by step, and moderate temperature is needed. You know yourself quite well, and you know how much temperature you need. You know exactly what you need. But if you get too excited, you will forget how much temperature is good for you, and you will lose your own way. This is very dangerous.
The trying to do something is in itself enlightenment. When we are in difficulty or distress, there we have enlightenment.
Each existence depends on something else... there are no separate individual existences. There are just many names for one existence.
Try not to force your idea on someone, but rather think about it with him. If you feel you have won the discussion, that is the wrong attitude. Try not to win the argument; just listen to it.
This is the mystery. When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything. So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others, and you will be helped by others. Before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you. To.
A mind full of preconceived ideas, subjective intentions, or habits it not open to things as they are.
The important thing in our understanding is to have a smooth, free-thinking way of observation. We have to think and to observe things without stagnation. We should accept things as they are without difficulty. Ou mind should be soft and open enough to understand things as they are. When our thinking is soft, it is called imperturbable thinking. This kind of thinking is always stable. It is called mindfulness.
We must have beginner’s mind, free from possessing anything, a mind that knows everything is in flowing change. Nothing exists but momentarily in its present form and color. One thing flows into another and cannot be grasped. Before the rain stops we hear a bird. Even under the heavy snow we see snowdrops and some new growth. In the East I saw rhubarb already. In Japan in the spring we eat cucumbers.
If someone is watching you, you can escape from him, but if no one is watching, you cannot escape from yourself.
Because your attainment is always ahead, you will always be sacrificing yourself now for some ideal in the future.
Do not be too interested in Zen.
There is no certain way that exists permanently... Moment after moment we have to find our own way.
Instead of only criticizing your culture, you should devote your mind and body to practicing this simple way. Then society and culture will grow out of you.
We sit to express our true nature.
Sincerity itself is the railroad track.
Those who are attached only to the result of their effort will not have any chance to appreciate it, because the result will never come.
Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything.
When everything exists within your big mind, all dualistic relationships drop away. There is no distinction between heaven and earth, man and woman, teacher and disciple. Sometimes a man bows to a woman; sometimes a woman bows to a man. Sometimes the disciple bows to the master; sometimes the master bows to the disciple... In your big mind, everything has the same value.
There is no gap between the ignorant and the wise. A foolish person is a wise person; a wise person is a foolish person.
We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence. We should find perfection in imperfection... The eternal exists because of non-eternal existence... We should find the truth in this world, through our difficulties, through our suffering... Pleasure is not different from difficulty. Good is not different from bad.