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.
DOGENLook for Buddha outside your own mind, and Buddha becomes the devil.
More Dogen Quotes
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When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves.
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 -
Realization doesn’t destroy the individual any more than the reflection of the moon breaks a drop of water. A drop of water can reflect the whole sky.
DOGEN -
Sitting is the gateway of truth to total liberation.
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 -
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 -
Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech.
DOGEN -
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.
DOGEN -
Yet you must not cling to the words of the old sages either; they, too, may not be right. Even if you believe them, you should be alert so that, in the event that something superior comes along, you may follow that.
DOGEN -
When you walk in the mist, you get wet.
DOGEN -
You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child.
DOGEN -
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 -
If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.
DOGEN -
Practice and enlightenment are not two.
DOGEN -
Nothing in the entire universe is hidden.
DOGEN