“Forgetting oneself is opening oneself”

To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfections.

There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment; There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice.

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.

In the mundane, nothing is sacred. In sacredness, nothing is mundane.

There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha Way.

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.

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.

Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.

People who truly follow the Way would do well to conceal the fact that they are Buddhists.

What is reality? An icicle forming in fire.

Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech.

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

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.

People like what is not true and they don’t like what is true.

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.”

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.