To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.

As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.

Each of you is perfect the way you are ... and you can use a little improvement.

So for a period of time each day, try to sit, without moving, without expecting anything, as if you were in your last moment. Moment after moment you feel your last instant. In each inhalation and each exhalation there are countless instants of time. Your intention is to live in each instant.

When something dies is the greatest teaching.

Because all existence is founded upon the ever-present state of union, everything already exists in a state of tranquility. However, this state of tranquility is masked from us by our assumption that there is a separation, that there is a problem.

For Zen students, a weed is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.

In Zazen, in the practice of meditation, we do not try to escape from the world. We face it directly. By facing it directly, we can become completely immersed in it.

Even though you have pain in your legs, you can do it. Even though your practice is not good enough, you can do it.

Wherever you go you will find your teacher, as long as you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little.

When you are just you, without thinking or trying to say something special, just saying what is on your mind and how you feel, then there is naturally self-respect.

Tai Shimano visited Shunryu Suzuki. "How are you feeling these days?" Suzuki replied, "They have a new name for me: Cancer!"

If you can just appreciate each thing, one by one, then you will have pure gratitude. Even though you observe just one flower, that one flower includes everything.

For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.

Real Freedom is to not feel limited when wearing this Zen robe, this troublesome formal robe. Similarly, in our busy life we should wear this civilization without being bothered by it, without ignoring it, without being caught by it.

It is not after we understand the truth that we attain enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live - to exist here and now.

Although we have no actual written communications from the world of emptiness, we have some hints or suggestions about what is going on in that world, and that is, you might say, enlightenment. When you see plum blossoms or hear the sound of a small stone hitting bamboo, that is a letter from the world of emptiness.

The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves. That is why we have teaching. But the teaching is not ourselves. It is some explanation of ourselves. To study the teaching is to know yourselves. That is why we do not ever attach to the teaching, or to the teacher. The moment you meet a teacher you should leave the teacher, and you should be independent. You want a teacher so that you can be independent. So you study yourselves. You have the teacher for yourselves, not for the teacher.

A Master who cannot bow to a disciple cannot bow to Buddha.

Time goes from present to past.

Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.