From your first day at school you are cut off from life to make theories.

Zen is not a particular state but the normal state: silent, peaceful, unagitated. In Zazen neither intention, analysis, specific effort nor imagination take place. It's enough just to be without hypocrisy, dogmatism, arrogance -- embracing all opposites.

What is called zazen is sitting on a zafu pillow in a quiet room, absolutely still, in the exact and proper position and without uttering a word, the mind empty of any thought, good or wicked. It is continuing to sit peacefully, facing a wall, and nothing more. Every day.

In a fight between a strong technique and a strong body, technique will prevail. In a fight between a strong mind and a strong technique, mind will prevail, because it will find the weak point.

Nobody today is normal, everybody is a little bit crazy or unbalanced, people's minds are running all the time. Their perceptions of the world are partial, incomplete. They are eaten alive by their egos. They think they see, but they are mistaken; all they do is project their madness, their world, upon the world. There is no clarity, no wisdom in that!

Zen is not some special state, it is our normal condition, silent, peaceful, awake, without agitation.

If you have a glass full of liquid you can discourse forever on its qualities, discuss whether it is cold, warm, whether it is really and truly composed of H-2-O, or even mineral water, or saki. Meditation is Drinking it!

Harmonizing opposites by going back to their source is the distinctive quality of the Zen attitude, the Middle Way: embracing contradictions, making a synthesis of them, achieving balance.

Train the body and develop stamina and endurance. But the spirit of competition and power that presides over them is not good, it reflects a distorted vision of life. The root of the martial arts is not there.

Human beings are afraid of dying. They are always running after something: money, honor, and pleasure. But if you had to die now, what would you want?

Keep your hands open, and all the sands of the desert can pass through them. Close them, and all you can feel is a bit of grit.

If we achieve satori and the satori shows, like a bit of dogshit stuck to the top of our nose, that is not so good.

If you are not happy here and now, you never will be.

To receive everything, one must open one's hands and give.

To practice Zen or the Martial Arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly, without reserve -- as if you might die in the next instant.

The body moves naturally, automatically, without any personal intervention or awareness. If we think too much, our actions become slow and hesitant.

You must concentrate upon and consecrate yourself wholly to each day, as though a fire were raging in your hair.

During zazen, brain and consciousness become pure. It's exactly like muddy water left to stand in a glass. Little by little, the sediment sinks to the bottom and the water becomes pure.

Time is not a line, but a series of now-points.

We feel our shell keeps us safe, but it crushes us and others, and keeps out light and sun.