There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen.
A garden is never finished.
We must exist right here, right now!
There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment.
The best way to control cow and sheep is to give them a big grazing field.
If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.
It is a big mistake to think that the best way to express yourself is to do whatever you want, acting as you please. This is not expressing yourself. If you know what to do exactly, and you do it, then you can express yourself fully.
There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.
If I tell you something, you will stick to it and limit your own capacity to find out for yourself.
No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.
Discipline is creating the situation.
The highest truth is daiji, translated as dai jiki in Chinese scriptures. This is the subject of the question the emperor asked Bodhidharma: “What is the First Principle?” Bodhidharma said, “I don’t know.” “I don’t know” is the First Principle.
You must be true to your own way until at last you actually come to the point where you see it is necessary to forget all about yourself.
Instead of respecting things, we want to use them for ourselves and if it is difficult to use them, we want to conquer them.
Even if the sun were to rise from the west, the Bodhisattva has only one way.
Let your ears hear without trying to hear. Let the mind think without trying to think and without trying to stop it. That is practice.
In your everyday life you always have opportunities for enlightenment. If you go to the rest room, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you cook, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you clean the floor, there is a chance to attain enlightenment.
If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall.
To stop your mind does not mean to stop the activities of mind. It means your mind pervades your whole body.
Ego is a social institution with no physical reality. The ego is simply your symbol of yourself.