Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.
The art of living… is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.
The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.
You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.
You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.
This is the real secret of life – to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.
Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up… now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.
Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.
Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.
If you really understand Zen, you can use any book, even the dictionary, because the sound of the rain needs no translation.
The menu is not the meal.
Join the dance.
Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.
