#zen

"It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable."

"The more you know, the less you need."

"The way out is through the door. Why is it that no one will use this method?"

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field.I'll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grassthe world is too full to talk about."

"But people of the deepest understanding look within, distracted by nothing. Since a clear mind is the Buddha, they attain the understanding of a Buddha without using the mind."

"Life is more or less a lie, but then again, that's exactly the way we want it to be."

"Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet."

"To preserve the silence within--amid all the noise. To remain open and quiet, a moist humus in the fertile darkness where the rain falls and the grain ripens--no matter how many tramp across the parade ground in whirling dust under an arid sky."

"When the mind is exhausted of images, it invents its own."

"A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, "Why is there so much suffering?"Suzuki Roshi replied, "No reason."

"Haiku is not a shriek, a howl, a sigh, or a yawn; rather, it is the deep breath of life."

"Who we are now is all that really matters."

"Only the hand that erases can write the true thing."

"The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth,"and so it goes away. Puzzling."

"Letting go is the lesson. Letting go is always the lesson. Have you ever noticed how much of our agony is all tied up with craving and loss?"

"In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few"

"Many have died; you also will die. The drum of death is being beaten. The world has fallen in love with a dream. Only sayings of the wise will remain."

"I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something which has no form and no color--something which exists before all forms and colors appear... No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea."

"Too lazy to be ambitious,I let the world take care of itself.Ten days' worth of rice in my bag;a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?Listening to the night rain on my roof,I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out."

"Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate."