Dogen Zenji

The valley stream’s rushing sound is the eloquent tongue of Buddha. The mountain’s vibrant colours are nothing but the Buddha’s form.

To study Buddhism is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be awakened by all things.

To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.

One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.

In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.

You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child.

There is no path to happiness: Happiness is the path.

I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.

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 eternity itself transcending time and space?

God is a loving god.

Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.

It is a naked city. Faith is not pampered, nor hope encouraged; there is no place to lay one’s exhaustion: but instead pinnacles skewer it undisguised against vacancy.

I feel the presence of a higher power. I believe that what you give is what you get. It’s universal law. I believe in the power of prayer and of words. I’ve learned that when you predict that negative things will happen, they do.

We’ve had the goddam Ages of Faith, we’ve had the goddam Age of Reason. This is the Age of Publicity.

The Bible may be the truth, but it is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, ‘How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.

Each step along the Buddha’s path to happiness requires practising mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

It’s all God’s will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.

The Christian ethic played an essential part in my upbringing.

What was never lost can never be found.