“A zen master’s life is one continuous mistake.”

That you carry yourself forward and experience the myriad things is delusion. That the myriad things come forward and experience themselves is awakening

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.

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.

To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

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?

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.

Sitting is the gateway of truth to total liberation.

If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.

Time is three eyes and eight elbows.

Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.

Those who practice know whether realization is attained or not, just as those who drink water know whether it is hot or cold

A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself.

IF YOU WOULD BE FREE OF GREED, FIRST YOU HAVE TO LEAVE EGOTISM BEHIND. THE BEST MENTAL EXERCISE FOR RELINQUISHING EGOTISM IS CONTEMPLATING IMPERMANENCE.

What you think in your own mind to be good, or what people of the world think is good, is not necessarily good.

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.