An ancient buddha said, “Mountains are mountains; waters are waters.” These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.
DOGENYou 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.
More Dogen Quotes
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If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it?
DOGEN -
Truth is not far away. It is nearer than near. There is no need to attain it, since not one of your steps leads away from it.
DOGEN -
Forgetting oneself is opening oneself
DOGEN -
If you want to see things just as they are, then you yourself must practice just as you are.
DOGEN -
There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha Way.
DOGEN -
Practice and enlightenment are not two.
DOGEN -
Time is three eyes and eight elbows.
DOGEN -
Do not travel to other dusty lands, forsaking your own sitting place; if you cannot find the truth where you are now, you will never find it.
DOGEN -
Just practice good, do good for others, without thinking of making yourself known so that you may gain reward. Really bring benefit to others, gaining nothing for yourself. This is the primary requisite for breaking free of attachments to the Self.
DOGEN -
Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.
DOGEN -
IF YOU WOULD BE FREE OF GREED, FIRST YOU HAVE TO LEAVE EGOTISM BEHIND. THE BEST MENTAL EXERCISE FOR RELINQUISHING EGOTISM IS CONTEMPLATING IMPERMANENCE.
DOGEN -
What is reality? An icicle forming in fire.
DOGEN -
But do not ask me where I am going, As I travel in this limitless world, Where every step I take is my home.
DOGEN -
A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.
DOGEN -
When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself from it.
DOGEN -
A zen master’s life is one continuous mistake.
DOGEN -
I haven’t got any Buddhism. I live by letting things happen.
DOGEN -
When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.
DOGEN -
Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming.
DOGEN -
When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots – just paint Spring.
DOGEN -
To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.
DOGEN -
People like what is not true and they don’t like what is true.
DOGEN -
Refraining from all evil, not clinging to birth and death, working in deep compassion for all sentient beings, respecting those over you and pitying those below you, without any detesting or desiring, worrying or lamentation – this is what is called Buddha. Do not search beyond it.
DOGEN -
Nothing in the entire universe is hidden.
DOGEN -
One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.
DOGEN -
We must always be disturbed by the truth.
DOGEN