Dogen Zenji

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.

I come to realize that mind is no other than mountains and rivers and the great wide earth, the sun and the moon and stars.

[on enlightenment] Body and mind dropped off.

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

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.

I lost my faith in God when I lost my daughter to Cancer, the beast. I begged, I cried, I offered my life for hers, and day by day, I watched that beautiful little Angel slip off. So, excuse me for not taking my seat next to you on Sunday in Church, I feel too cheated to worship.

Zen mind is not Zen mind. Throwing away Zen mind is correct Zen mind.

Zazen is an activity that is an extension of the universe. Zazen is not the life of an individual, it’s the universe that’s breathing.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.

I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God’s will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.

If you are a Christian, you are in danger. If you decided to abandon your faith and become an atheist, you also are to be liquidated according to their concept. You are in danger if you decide to become a Muslim. It is not going to save you anyway because they believe traditional Islam is hostile to their goals.

The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflections. The water has no mind to receive their images.

When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

What about Jesus Christ? I say that he was a precursor of idealists; a precursor of socialists.

What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? It should be, I bet that my Redeemer liveth.

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity.

An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.

Children, Fear God; that is to say, have an holy awe upon your minds to avoid that which is evil, and a strict care to embrace and do that which is good.