Quotes from D?gen

If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

Focus your mind on one thing, absorb the old examples, study the actions of the masters- penetrate deeply into a single form of practice.

If there are fish that would swim or birds that would fly only after investigating the entire ocean or sky, they would find neither path nor place.

This dew-like life will fade away; avoid involvement in superfluous things.

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

Those who are extremely stupid think that women are merely the objects of sexual desire and treat women in this way. The Buddha's children should not be like this. If we discriminate against women because we see them merely as objects of sexual desire, do we also discriminate against all men for the same reason?

Beings, things, and events do not exist in time: being, things, and events are times.

Dogen's teaching: We practice because we do not yet know who or what we are. But as a result of many causes, including the suffering we experience and the longing engendered by that suffering, we aspire to know. That aspiration leads many people to begin the practice of zazen. Dogen expressed this beautifully when he said, "Wisdom is seeking wisdom." Perhaps we might paraphrase and say that wholeness is seeking wholeness, self is seeking self.

Because mountains are high and broad, the way of riding the clouds is always reached in the mountains; the inconceivable power of soaring in the wind comes freely from the mountains

No matter how compelling or beautiful they may be, words appeal in the main to the linear, thinking mind that thinks in words.

There is a simple way to become a buddha: When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no thoughts or worries, you will be called a buddha. Seek nothing else.

Handle even a single leaf of a green in such a way that it manifests the body of the Buddha. This in turn allows the Buddha to manifests through the leaf. This is a power which you cannot grasp with your rational mind. It operates freely, according to the situation, in a most natural way.

Like the sun illuminating and refreshing the world, this sitting removes obscurities from the mind and lightens the body so that exhaustion is set aside.

When you let go, the dharma fills your hands;

Delusions mean our individuality, our limitations as individuals, and also egocentricity. We cannot see the universe from the viewpoints of other people; we can see things only from my point of view. I cannot see from your point of view. Even though I think I can understand it, I really cannot see it, because it is not reality for me.

The ancients thought it shameful to seek advancement or want to be the head of something, or the chief or senior.

No one should torment people or break their hearts.

thing, or who changes his speech or manner according to the appearance or position of the people he meets, is not a man working in the Way.

A person who is influenced by the quality of a thing, or who changes his speech or manner according to the appearance or position of the people he meets, is not a man working in the Way.

Our own picture of the world is a kind of a fantasy made of our memory in our brain. Each person has this limitation. That is why we have problems, troubles, fighting, arguments. The angles we see the world from are different, and anuttara samyak sambodhi, the supreme awareness, is to see that we cannot see the whole world, to understand that we are deluded and limited. This means we have to let go of our viewpoints.

So our practice is not to eliminate our delusion, but to see or to become aware of the fact that we are deluded. Just become aware of it and let go of it. Do not be pulled by the delusions.

Clarifying the Way means that we determine the point we should aim at throughout our lives, based on the self that is only the self and life that is only life. This is the sole great matter, and this is what completing the sole great matter of one's life means. True practice begins at this point.

See the pot as your own head; see the water as your lifeblood.

When I have to struggle seeking after something, When I feel loneliness in helpless solitude, When I am in despair of myself —These are all thoughts of ourselves. Leave everything to zazen, letting go of thought, Or to single-minded chanting of the sound that sees the -world. At this time, even though we don't know it consciously Suddenly, whatever has happened The living reality of the self that is only the self is there, Just as the big sky is always the big sky.