Dogen Zenji

To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.

To study Buddhism is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be awakened by all things.

One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.

[on enlightenment] Body and mind dropped off.

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

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

A man who is good enough to go to heaven is not good enough to be a clergyman.

Zen is not an art, it’s not a religion. It’s a realisation.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.

[on enlightenment] Body and mind dropped off.

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity.

The Buddhist notion of diligence is to delight in positive deeds.

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

People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.

You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.

The Zen expression Kill the Buddha!” means to kill any concept of the Buddha as something apart from oneself.

When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

In heaven all the interesting people are missing.