Dogen Quotes

83 quotes in 1037 categories

• Understand clearly that when a great need appears a great use appears also; when there is small need there is small use; it is obvious,…
• Through one word, or seven words, or three times five, even if you investigate thoroughly myriad forms, nothing can be depended upon. Night advances, the…
• That you carry yourself forward and experience the myriad things is delusion. That the myriad things come forward and experience themselves is awakening
• Whenever learners or those beyond learning awaken the mind, for the first time they plant one buddha-nature. Working with the four elements and five clusters,…
• 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…
• 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…
• 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…
• Does a dragon still sing from within a withered tree?
• Though it has no thought of keeping watch, it's not for naught that the scarecrow stands in the grain field.
• What is reality? An icicle forming in fire.
• Sitting is the gateway of truth to total liberation.
• Do not view mountains from the scale of human thought.
• Coming, going, the waterbirds don't leave a trace, don't follow a path.
• 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…
• Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way.
• 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…
• There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment; There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice.
• 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…
• Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen as though you are saving your head from fire.
• Do no harmful actions, do not become attached to the cycle of death and rebirth, show kindness, respect the old and have compassion for the…

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