The recognition of the coming and going of things is a first step in training and practice.
DOGENThe recognition of the coming and going of things is a first step in training and practice.
DOGENBut do not ask me where I am going, As I travel in this limitless world, Where every step I take is my home.
DOGENYour 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.
DOGENA flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.
DOGENWhy 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.
DOGENIn the mundane, nothing is sacred. In sacredness, nothing is mundane.
DOGENThere are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha Way.
DOGENTo study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.
DOGENIF YOU WOULD BE FREE OF GREED, FIRST YOU HAVE TO LEAVE EGOTISM BEHIND. THE BEST MENTAL EXERCISE FOR RELINQUISHING EGOTISM IS CONTEMPLATING IMPERMANENCE.
DOGENEnlightenment is intimacy with all things.
DOGENTruth 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.
DOGENThat the self advances and confirms the ten thousand things is called delusion; that the ten thousand things advance and confirm the self is called enlightenment.
DOGENThe 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.
DOGENStudents 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.
DOGENNo 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.
DOGENRefraining 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.
DOGEN