Dogen Quotes

Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realize the unity of all things.

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

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken. Take heed, do not squander your life.

But do not ask me where I am going, As I travel in this limitless world, Where every step I take is my home.

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

Students, when you want to say something, think about it three times before you say it. Speak only if your words will benefit yourselves and others. Do not speak if it brings no benefit.

That you carry yourself forward and experience the myriad things is delusion. That the myriad things come forward and experience themselves is awakening

Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way.

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

If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.

When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

Meditation is not a way to enlightenment, Nor is it a method of achieving anything at all. It is peace itself. It is the actualization of wisdom, The ultimate truth of the oneness of all things.

If he cannot stop the mind that seeks after fame and profit, he will spend his life without finding peace.

To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfections.

If you want to do a certain thing, you first have to be a certain person. Once you become that certain person, you will not care anymore about doing that certain thing.

Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.

Let your heart go out and abide in things. Let things return and abide in your heart.

IF YOU WOULD BE FREE OF GREED, FIRST YOU HAVE TO LEAVE EGOTISM BEHIND. THE BEST MENTAL EXERCISE FOR RELINQUISHING EGOTISM IS CONTEMPLATING IMPERMANENCE.

In the mundane, nothing is sacred. In sacredness, nothing is mundane.

What is reality? An icicle forming in fire.

We must always be disturbed by the truth.

No matter how bad a state of mind you may get into, if you keep strong and hold out, eventually the floating clouds must vanish and the withering wind must cease.

Truth is not far away. It is nearer than near. There is no need to attain it, since not one of your steps leads away from it.

The Buddha is found in other people - even the ones we do not like very much.

To start from the self and try to understand all things is delusion. To let the self be awakened by all things is enlightenment.

Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech.

There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha Way.

Although its light is wide and great, the Moon is reflected in a puddle one inch wide. The whole Moon and the entire sky is reflected in one dew drop on the grass.

Do not travel to other dusty lands, forsaking your own sitting place; if you cannot find the truth where you are now, you will never find it.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment; There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice.

People who truly follow the Way would do well to conceal the fact that they are Buddhists.

Look for Buddha outside your own mind, and Buddha becomes the devil.

Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming.

I haven't got any Buddhism. I live by letting things happen.

A zen master's life is one continuous mistake.

If you want to see things just as they are, then you yourself must practice just as you are.

Though it has no thought of keeping watch, it's not for naught that the scarecrow stands in the grain field.

In the stream, Rushing past To the dusty world, My fleeting form Casts no reflection.

People like what is not true and they don't like what is true.

When the old plum tree blooms, the entire world blooms.

Practice and enlightenment are not two.

In a snowfall that covers the winter grass a white heron uses his own whiteness to disappear.

What you think in your own mind to be good, or what people of the world think is good, is not necessarily good.

When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves.

Students today should live fully every moment of time. This dew-like life fades away; time speeds swiftly. In this short life of ours, avoid involvement in superfluous things and just study the Way.

Coming, going, the waterbirds, don't leave a trace, don't follow a path.

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 think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.