“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.”

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.”

Forgetting oneself is opening oneself

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.

When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

In doing zazen it is desirable to have a quiet room. You should be temperate in eating and drinking, forsaking all delusive relationships. Setting everything aside, think of neither good nor evil, right nor wrong. Thus having stopped the various functions of your mind, five up even the idea of becoming a Buddha.

The recognition of the coming and going of things is a first step in training and practice.

Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming.

But do not ask me where I am going, As I travel in this limitless world, Where every step I take is my home.

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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.

Coming, going, the waterbirds, don’t leave a trace, don’t follow a path.

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.

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realize the unity of all things.

Meditation is not a way to enlightenment, Nor is it a method of achieving anything at all. It is peace itself. It is the actualization of wisdom, The ultimate truth of the oneness of all things.

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.

We began with honesty let us end in it too.

If you tried and didn’t end up where you wanted to go that’s still progress.

Together we are an endless conversation.

As the archeology of our thought easily shows, man is an invention of recent date. And one perhaps nearing its end.

I feel your absence deeply within my heart because we are already, and almost apart.

There is a place where the sidewalk ends.

Not only are there no happy endings,’ she told him, ‘there aren’t even any endings.