To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.
DOGENThat you carry yourself forward and experience the myriad things is delusion. That the myriad things come forward and experience themselves is awakening
More Dogen Quotes
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Learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest.
DOGEN -
Although its light is wide and great, the Moon is reflected in a puddle one inch wide. The whole Moon and the entire sky is reflected in one dew drop on the grass.
DOGEN -
When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves.
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You should stop searching for phrases and chasing after words. Take the backward step and turn the light inward. Your body-mind of itself will drop off and your original face will appear. If you want to attain just this, immediately practice just this.
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Zazen is an activity that is an extension of the universe. Zazen is not the life of an individual, it’s the universe that’s breathing.
DOGEN -
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.
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Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech.
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Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.
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Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.
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Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming.
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There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment; There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice.
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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.
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Let your heart go out and abide in things. Let things return and abide in your heart.
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What is reality? An icicle forming in fire.
DOGEN -
I asked, “What are words?” The tenzo said, “One, two, three, four, five.” I asked again, “What is practice?” “Nothing in the entire universe is hidden.”
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To start from the self and try to understand all things is delusion. To let the self be awakened by all things is enlightenment.
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Nothing in the entire universe is hidden.
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A zen master’s life is one continuous mistake.
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When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself from it.
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The coming and going of birth and death is a painting. Unsurpassed enlightenment is a painting. The entire phenomenal universe and the empty sky are nothing but a painting.
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Students, when you want to say something, think about it three times before you say it. Speak only if your words will benefit yourselves and others. Do not speak if it brings no benefit.
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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.
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When you walk in the mist, you get wet.
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If you want to see things just as they are, then you yourself must practice just as you are.
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IF YOU WOULD BE FREE OF GREED, FIRST YOU HAVE TO LEAVE EGOTISM BEHIND. THE BEST MENTAL EXERCISE FOR RELINQUISHING EGOTISM IS CONTEMPLATING IMPERMANENCE.
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Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way.
DOGEN