Dogen Zenji Quotes

The Sage has no thinking mind and therefore there are no ‘others’ for him.

When a human being becomes so still that they begin to lose awareness of their gender, and they are simply looking into that abyss where there is no notion of self whatsoever, the world disappears. And that's really the only place to go. It's the only place to remain.

Even great travelers of the inner world have got stuck in beautiful experiences, and have become identified with those experiences, thinking, "I have found myself." They have stopped before reaching the final stage where all experiences disappear. Enlightenment is not an experience.

Not suffering another existence is reaching the Way.

Love said to me, there is nothing that is not me. Be silent.

He who has realized the Self in the Heart has transcended the dualities and is never perplexed.

To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.

It's only when you become love - in other words, when you have dropped your illusions and attachments - that you will "know." As you identify less and less with the "me," you will be more at ease with everybody and with everything.

Zen is a way of liberation, concerned not with discovering what is good or bad or advantageous, but what is.

One has to go beyond the mind to experience the spiritual bliss of desirelessness.

There is no fundamental difference between the preparation for death and the practice of dying, and spiritual practice leading to enlightenment.

The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest.

Forget the self and you will fear nothing, in whatever level or awareness you find yourself to be.

Die before you die and find that there is no death.

In spirituality, when we say growth, we are talking about becoming smaller; not just smaller - non-existent.

To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no trace continues endlessly.

That which is nearest is least observed. The Atman is the nearest of the near, therefore the careless and the unsteady mind gets no clue to it. But the person who is alert, calm, self-restrained, and discriminating ignores the external world and, diving more and more into the inner world, realizes the glory of the Atman and becomes great.

Work done for the Self gives no bondage. Neither desire pleasure nor fear pain from work. It is the mind and body that work, not I. Tell yourself this unceasingly and realise it. Try not to know that you work.

Our identification with the mind and body is the chief reason for our failure to know our self as we truly are.

So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head, as you would smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it.

Say - i am the Atman in which my lower ego has become merged for ever. Be perfect in this idea; and then as long as the body endures, speak unto others this message of fearlessness: "Thou art That", "Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached!"

When someone becomes transparent, then something shines through that person that has nothing to do with the person or any of his or her personal history. What is required is becoming so transparent that the self or ego dissolves.

Yoga is the journey from just eating and sleeping to becoming an ecstatic being. This is the aspiration of life itself.

Because clarity and enlightenment are within your own nature, they are regained without moving an inch.

So the single most vital step on your journey towards enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind.