If you want to do a certain thing, you first have to be a certain person. Once you become that certain person, you will not care anymore about doing that certain thing.
DOGENPractice and enlightenment are not two.
More Dogen Quotes
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To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.
DOGEN -
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 -
Be moderate in eating and drinking. Mindful of the passing of time, engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from fire.
DOGEN -
A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself.
DOGEN -
Coming, going, the waterbirds, don’t leave a trace, don’t follow a path.
DOGEN -
I haven’t got any Buddhism. I live by letting things happen.
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 -
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.
DOGEN -
Forgetting oneself is opening oneself
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An ancient buddha said, “Mountains are mountains; waters are waters.” These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.
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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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Practice and enlightenment are not two.
DOGEN -
You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child.
DOGEN -
Something you want badly enough can always be gained. No matter how fierce the enemy, how remote the beautiful lady, or how carefully guarded the treasure, there is always a means to the goal for the earnest seeker. The unseen help of the guardian gods of heaven and earth assure fulfillment.
DOGEN -
Do not doubt that mountains walk simply because they may not appear to walk like humans.
DOGEN -
If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.
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If he cannot stop the mind that seeks after fame and profit, he will spend his life without finding peace.
DOGEN -
Let your heart go out and abide in things. Let things return and abide in your heart.
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.
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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.
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.
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People who truly follow the Way would do well to conceal the fact that they are Buddhists.
DOGEN -
Do not be amazed by the true dragon.
DOGEN -
What you think in your own mind to be good, or what people of the world think is good, is not necessarily good.
DOGEN -
When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves.
DOGEN -
To escape from the world means that one’s mind is not concerned with the opinions of the world.
DOGEN