Why abandon a seat in your own home to wander in vain through dusty regions of another land? If you make one false step, you miss what is right before your eyes.
DOGENTo start from the self and try to understand all things is delusion. To let the self be awakened by all things is enlightenment.
More Dogen Quotes
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No matter how bad a state of mind you may get into, if you keep strong and hold out, eventually the floating clouds must vanish and the withering wind must cease.
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In the mundane, nothing is sacred. In sacredness, nothing is mundane.
DOGEN -
People like what is not true and they don’t like what is true.
DOGEN -
Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming.
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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.
DOGEN -
When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots – just paint Spring.
DOGEN -
To start from the self and try to understand all things is delusion. To let the self be awakened by all things is enlightenment.
DOGEN -
We must always be disturbed by the truth.
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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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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.
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People who truly follow the Way would do well to conceal the fact that they are Buddhists.
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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.
DOGEN -
There are thousands upon thousands of students who have practiced meditation and obtained its fruits. Do not doubt its possibilities because of the simplicity of the method. If you can not find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
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 -
That you carry yourself forward and experience the myriad things is delusion. That the myriad things come forward and experience themselves is awakening
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Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.
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Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.
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Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma see no Dharma in everyday actions. They have not yet discovered that there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma.
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Be moderate in eating and drinking. Mindful of the passing of time, engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from fire.
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Your body is like a dew-drop on the morning grass, your life is as brief as a flash of lightning. Momentary and vain, it is lost in a moment.
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Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.
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Look for Buddha outside your own mind, and Buddha becomes the devil.
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If he cannot stop the mind that seeks after fame and profit, he will spend his life without finding peace.
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When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves.
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If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.
DOGEN -
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 enlightened by everything in the world.
DOGEN