There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.

It is in the nature of all things that take form to dissolve again. Strive with your whole being to attain perfection.

Your practice is your life.

To know what is sufficient is to be rich.

With intuitive wisdom we will be able to see clearly the ways of the world. Everything in the world is our teacher.

We must never confuse the teacher with the truth.

As we have to climb up the tree / To reach the fruit, / Even so, / We have to dive within / To collect our inner treasure.

If you say, “I am a free soul. I am a son of God who can bind me,” free you shall be.

I drink tea and forget the world’s noises.

True love is possible only with understanding. When there is understanding, compassion is born.

I should not make any promises right now, / But I know if you / Pray / Somewhere in this world / Something good will happen.

In our a zazen (meditation) practice we stop our thinking, and we are free from our emotional activity. We don’t say there is no emotional activity, but we are free from it.

He who holds back rising anger like a rolling chariot, him I call a real driver; other people are but holding the reins.

People say, “I want peace.” If you remove I (ego), and your want (desire), you are left with peace.

Along the path, one must turn back in order to seek oneself.

Faith is an oasis in the heart that can never be reached by thinking.

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

Because a human being is endowed with empathy, he violates the natural order if he does not reach out to those who need care. Responding to this empathy, one is in harmony with the order of things.

Teaching without words is understood by very few.

All humanity shares the sunlight; that sunlight is neither yours nor mine. It is life giving energy, which we all share.

You see many stars at night in the sky but find them not when the sun rises; can you say that there are no stars in the heaven of the day? So, O man! As you behold not God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God.

I am only acting as a mirror to your life, in which you can see yourself as you are; then you can throw away the mirror; the mirror is not important.

Just live that life. It doesn’t matter whether it is life of hell, life of the hungry ghost, life of the animal, it’s okay; just live that life, see.

We are ready to open ourselves up, with no resistance or timidity, and truly face the world.

To die without being forgotten is to be eternal.

If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for or against anything.

If you put your conditioned intellect to rest for a long time, suddenly it will be like the bottom falling out of a bucket—then you will naturally be happy and at peace.

Every problem is there to help you bring forth your own capabilities.

Loving kindness to all creatures; / Compassion for all who suffer; / Sympathetic joy for all who are happy; / And equanimity, a pervading calm.

He who looks only as far as his eyes can see, who listens only as far as his ears can hear, and who imagines only as far as his mind can reach: such a man has achieved ideal balance and dynamic adaptation.