Dogen Quotes

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

I asked, "What are words?" The tenzo said, "One, two, three, four, five." I asked again, "What is practice?" "Nothing in the entire universe is hidden."

Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma see no Dharma in everyday actions. They have not yet discovered that there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma.

Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.

In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.

Be moderate in eating and drinking. Mindful of the passing of time, engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from fire.

Since it is the practice of enlightenment, that practice has no beginning and since it is enlightenment within the practice, that realization has no end.

The true person is Not anyone in particular; But like the deep blue color Of the limitless sky, It is everyone, Everywhere in the world.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

To what shall I liken the world? Moonlight, reflected In dewdrops, Shaken from a crane's bill.

Your body is like a dew-drop on the morning grass, your life is as brief as a flash of lightning. Momentary and vain, it is lost in a moment.

Sitting is the gateway of truth to total liberation.

Do not doubt that mountains walk simply because they may not appear to walk like humans.

If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it?

Do not be amazed by the true dragon.

Nothing in the entire universe is hidden.

The object of Zen is not to kill all feelings and become anesthetized to pain and fear. The object of Zen is to free us to scream loudly and fully when it is time to scream.

There are mountains hidden in mountains. There are mountains hidden in hiddenness. This is complete understanding.

When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots - just paint Spring.

Forgetting oneself is opening oneself

Learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest.

You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child.

Do not arouse disdainful mind when you prepare a broth of wild grasses; do not arouse joyful mind when you prepare a fine cream soup.

When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself from it.

Time is three eyes and eight elbows.

Why abandon a seat in your own home to wander in vain through dusty regions of another land? If you make one false step, you miss what is right before your eyes.

The recognition of the coming and going of things is a first step in training and practice.

The coming and going of birth and death is a painting. Unsurpassed enlightenment is a painting. The entire phenomenal universe and the empty sky are nothing but a painting.

An ancient buddha said, “Mountains are mountains; waters are waters.” These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.

Handle even a single leaf of green in such a way that it manifests the body of the Buddha. This in turn allows the Buddha to manifest through the leaf.

Do not view mountains from the scale of human thought.

Do not miss the opportunity of offering even a single drop into the ocean of merit or a grain atop the mountain of the roots of beneficial activity.

Clearly I know, the mind is mountains, rivers, and the great earth; sun, moon, and stars.

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.

Working with plants, trees, fences and walls, if they practice sincerely they will attain enlightenment.

Consider that nirvana is itself no other than our life.

If we look at the world with a deluded body and mind, we will think that our self is permanent. But if we practice correctly and return to our true self, we will realize that nothing is permanent

Realization doesn't destroy the individual any more than the reflection of the moon breaks a drop of water. A drop of water can reflect the whole sky.

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

Yet, though it is like this, simply, flowers fall amid our longing and weeds spring up amid our antipathy.

If we seek the Buddha outside the mind, the Buddha changes into a devil.

Mountains and rivers at this very moment are the actualization of the world of the ancient Buddhas. Each, abiding in its phenomenal expression, realizes completeness.

When other sects speak well of Zen, the first thing that they praise is its poverty.

Do not practice buddha-dharma with the thought that it is to benefit others.

That the self advances and confirms the ten thousand things is called delusion; that the ten thousand things advance and confirm the self is called enlightenment.

The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech.

Does a dragon still sing from within a withered tree?

There are myriads of forms and hundreds of grasses throughout the entire earth, yet each grass and each form itself is the entire earth.

Inside the treasury of the dharma eye a single grain of dust.

What is the way of the Buddha? It is to study the self. What is the study of the self? It is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to enlightened by everything in the world.