“If you are new to practice it's important to realize that simply to sit on that cushion for fifteen minutes is a victory. Just to sit with that much composure, just to be there, is fine.”
Source: Everyday Zen: Love & Work
“Individuals differ in the depth and force of their awakening, but without some experience of realization a person will be unable to truly understand even a word of Zen.”
Source: Zen: The Authentic Gate
“It is better to begin the journey, make some mistakes and correct your course, than to wait until everything is perfect and never even start”
Source: The Cat Who Taught Zen: A Beautifully Illustrated Exploration of Self-Discovery
“Just grasp the essence, don't concern yourself with results.”
Source: Sun At Midnight: Poems and Letters
“La programación Zen no es una técnica o metodología de desarrollo. No es una materia que se pueda aprender en la Universidad, ni una experiencia que se pueda incluir en el curriculum. La programación Zen es una actitud. Esta actitud es lo único que separa al programador del artista.”
“In 1963, I was sitting with a number of my students on the campus of Columbia University in New York. The morning was beautiful, the sun was shining, and we were talking to each other about the Buddhist practice of removing concepts. Suddenly someone passing by stopped and looking at me for a few seconds, and then he asked, "Are you a Buddhist?" I looked up and said, "No."
Did I tell a lie? I hope that my students understood me at that moment. If I had said, "Yes, I am a Buddhist," then he would still be caught in his idea of what a Buddhist is, and that would not help him. So "No" was more helpful than "Yes." That is the language of Zen. When you do say or do something, it is to help undo the knots in people's minds, and not to bind them anymore. That is why the language we use should aim at liberation.”
Source: Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other
“We should live every day like people who have just been rescued from dying on the moon. We are on Earth now, and we need to enjoy walking on this precious, beautiful planet. Zen Master Linji said, “The miracle is not to walk on water or fire. The miracle is to walk on the earth.”
Source: Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm
“Not to be nothing, but to understand that everything is and is not actually concrete.”
Source: Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey
“If there is anything in this world which transcends the relativities of cultural conditioning, it is Zen—by whatever name it may be called.”
“It is taught that all buddhas in the past, present, and future leave the household and attain the way. The twenty-eight ancestors in India and the six early ancestors in China who transmitted the Buddha's mind seal were all monks. They are distinguished in the three realms by strictly observing the precepts. Thus precepts are primary for practicing Zen in pursuit of the way. How can one become a buddha ancestor without becoming free from faults and preventing wrongdoing?”
Source: The Essential Dogen: Writings of the Great Zen Master