Dogen Zenji Quotes

To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature.

Your nature is the Buddha.

So it is not a matter of whether it is possible to attain Buddhahood, or if it is possible to make a tile a jewel. But just to work, just to live in this world with this understanding is the most important point, and that is our practice. That is true zazen.

The deeper you get into Yoga you realize it is a spiritual practice. It's a journey I'm making. I'm heading that way.

If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness.

Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice; there is no other way of life than this way of life.

Be thou a true yogi. A yogi who understands that everything he's looking for is really inside himself. Learn to live more in the Self.

Those who practice know whether realization is attained or not, just as those who drink water know whether it is hot or cold

Meditation makes you innocent, it makes you childlike. In that state, miracles are possible. That state is pure magic.

Know that the true dharma emerges of itself [during the practice of zazen], clearing away hindrances and distractions.

You should stop searching for phrases and chasing after words. Take the backward step and turn the light inward. Your body-mind of itself will drop off and your original face will appear. If you want to attain just this, immediately practice just this.

The idea of Buddha consciousness is that all beings are Buddha beings, and your whole function in meditation and everything else is to find that Buddha consciousness within and live out of that, instead of the interests of the eyes and ears.

In Buddhism there are words you can say... as you say the words with rhythm the conscious tells the subconscious.

As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Buddha.

To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.

The Buddha is in me, the Buddha is in you. Live up to it.

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

Zen Buddhism is a discipline where belief isn't necessary.

If every day you practice walking and sitting meditation and generate the energy of mindfulness and concentration and peace, you are a cell in the body of the new Buddha. This is not a dream but is possible today and tomorrow.

Many spiritual teachers - in Buddhism, in Islam - have talked about first-hand experience of the world as an important part of the path to wisdom, to enlightenment.

I'm not speaking as someone who has reached satori or anything else. I'm a student.

Enlightenment is always there. Small enlightenment will bring great enlightenment. If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive - that you can touch the miracle of being alive - then that is a kind of enlightenment.

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.

There are techniques of Buddhism, such as meditation, that anyone can adopt.