Become the person of no rank. Become the noble soul, and live in this awakened way, not imitating anyone. Whatever the circumstances your life asks of you, respond to them in your own individual Zen-spirited...

Mountains like these and travelers in the mountains and events that happen to them here are found not only in Zen literature but in the tales of every major religion. This allegory of a physical...

For the unified mind in accord with the Way all self-centered striving ceases. Doubts and irresolutions vanish and life in true faith is possible. With a single stroke we are freed from bondage; nothing clings...

The love of nature is religion, and that religion is poetry; these three things are one thing. This is the unspoken creed of haiku poets.

In your big mind, everything has the same value…In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha. Here there is Buddhahood

If you have time to be mindful, you have time to meditate.

Not being tense but ready.Not thinking but not dreaming.Not being set but flexible.Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement.It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.

What determines each person’s state of happiness or unhappiness is not the event itself, but what the event means to that person.

Perfection itself is not the ultimate goalbut the ultimate condition of life.

What is a course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, no matter how well selected, or the best society, or the most admirable routine of life, compared with the discipline of looking always at what...

Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.

Your life is your practice. Your spiritual practice does not occur someplace other than in your life right now, and your life is nowhere other than where you are. You are looking for answers, insight,...

Mindfulness is attainable when one can embrace life, not its circumstances.

Nobody ever gets to nirvana without going through samsara. Nobody ever gets to heaven, without going through hell. The center of all things, the truth, is surrounded by demons.

Once Seung Sahn Soen-sa and a student of his attended a talk at a Zen center in California. The Dharma teacher spoke about Bodhidharma. After the talk, someone asked him “What’s the difference between Bodhidharma’s...

The more you know, the less you need.

Let me give you a wonderful Zen practice. Wake up in the morning…look in the mirror, and laugh at yourself.

This, then, is what counts: a lightning reaction which has no further need of conscious observation. In this respect at least the pupil makes himself independent of all conscious purpose.

Every belief that you hold manifests itself in some manner by either causing you to take some form of action or by preventing you from taking action. If you don’t believe something is possible, you...

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is...

Life is full of highs and lows. We need them both to grow to our fullest potential. Just hang on tight & enjoy the ride.

A walk with a two-year-old is very Zen; it is not about the end but the journey. He needs to pet the dog someone is walking; to roll down the slight incline to the church...

Amazingly, we take for granted that instinct for survival, fear of death, must separate us from the happiness of pure and uninterpreted experience, in which body, mind, and nature are the same. This retreat from...

Cake.” I admired his directness.

The son needs the father to have access to his source, and the father needs the son to have access to the future and the infinite.

Earth, mountains, rivers, hidden in this nothingness.In this nothingness, earth, mountains, rivers revealed.Spring flowers, winter snows.There’s no being or non-being, nor denial itself.