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In the stream, Rushing past To the dusty world, My fleeting form Casts no reflection.

Dogen

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

Buddha Like People Person True
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

Destroy Drop Individual Moon Realization Reflection Sky Water
Do not travel to other dusty lands, forsaking your own sitting place; if you cannot find the truth where you are now, you will never find it.
DOGEN

Dusty Land never Place Sitting Travel Truth
Nothing in the entire universe is hidden.
DOGEN

Entire Hide Universe
A zen master’s life is one continuous mistake.
DOGEN

Continue Life Master Mistake People
What you think in your own mind to be good, or what people of the world think is good, is not necessarily good.
DOGEN

Good Mind Necessary People Thinking
You should stop searching for phrases and chasing after words. Take the backward step and turn the light inward. Your body-mind of itself will drop off and your original face will appear. If you want to attain just this, immediately practice just this.
DOGEN

Chase Light Mind Phrase Practice Stop Word
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.
DOGEN

Dew Discipline Every Fully Life Moment Short Student Time
Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.
DOGEN

Among Defeated Excel Fool Prefer Wise
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

Activity Breathing Epron Extension Individual People Universe
If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it?
DOGEN

Buddhist Go Yourself Zen Proverb
When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.
DOGEN

Appear Body Complete Mind Peace Perfect Thing
Forgetting oneself is opening oneself
DOGEN

Forget Oneself Opening Yourself
Be moderate in eating and drinking. Mindful of the passing of time, engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from fire.
DOGEN

Eat Engage Fire Head Moderate Pass People Save Saving
If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.
DOGEN

Buddha Expect Nothing Grasp Want Way
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.
DOGEN

Delusive Drink Eat Forsake Idea Quite Relationship Room Temepearte Thing
When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots – just paint Spring.
DOGEN

Just Paint Peache Plum Spring
That 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.
DOGEN

Advance Call Confirm Delusion Enlightenment Self Ten Thousand
Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way.
DOGEN

Easy Seek True Way
To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.
DOGEN

Buddhism Buddhist Life Ourselves Space Study
Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.
DOGEN

Bear Children Mind Parents Universe Whole
In the mundane, nothing is sacred. In sacredness, nothing is mundane.
DOGEN

Mundane Nothing Sacred Sacredness
Your 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.
DOGEN

Cvain Dew Flash Lightning Lost Moment Momentary Morning
In the stream, Rushing past To the dusty world, My fleeting form Casts no reflection.
DOGEN

Cast Past People Reflection Rush Stream World
An ancient buddha said, “Mountains are mountains; waters are waters.” These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.
DOGEN

Ancient Buddha Mean Mountain Water Word
Those who practice know whether realization is attained or not, just as those who drink water know whether it is hot or cold
DOGEN

Cold Drink Hot Practice Realization Water
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

Alert Believe Either Events Right Sage Word

In the stream, Rushing past To the dusty world, My fleeting form Casts no reflection.

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In the stream, Rushing past To the dusty world, My fleeting form Casts no reflection.

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