When the mind is at peace, the world too is at peace. Nothing real, nothing absent. Not holding on to reality, not getting stuck in the void, you are neither holy nor wise, just an ordinary fellow who has completed his work.

We’re both looking at the same moon, in the same world. 
We’re connected to reality by the same line.
All I have to do is quietly draw it toward me.

When you stop searching and you calm down and you put your books away, and you confront yourself and see what you are all about, that will bring bliss faster than anything you can ever imagine or ever do.

We have advantages. We have a cushion to fall back on. This is abundance. A luxury of place and time. Something rare and wonderful. It's almost historically unprecedented. We must do extraordinary things. We have to. It would be absurd not to.

We are not enslaved by our lives; we are free. Being free, in this case, means simply that we have a body and a mind, and we can uplift ourselves in order to work with reality in a dignified and humorous way. If we begin to perk up, we will find that the whole universe including the seasons, the snowfall, the ice and the mud is also powerfully working with us. Life is a humorous situation, but it is not mocking us.

To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe, to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it is a wonder beyond words.

Three-fourths of philosophy and literature is the talk of people trying to convince themselves that they really like the cage they were tricked into entering.

There's a tension between the part of us that wants to move along at speed, infatuated with our ever-proliferating array of screens and gadgets, and the part of us that deeply hates them, too. There's the part that doesn't want to be bothered with other people's lives and is therefore comfortable with the false proximity that social media affords. But there's also the part that is heartbroken at the loneliness and isolation of the life we are livingthe part that requires medication and constant distraction just to endure it.

There will always be an infinity of things to do. We can never get our life or our business or our kitchen running exactly the way we want it to run. No matter how we envision it, it can't be that way. Life is not predetermined to the point that we can get to some stage and then see how it all works. What happens is that we have a better and better understanding of things, we have more and more clarity and ability to deal with things as they arise. But they keep arising, endlessly. The empty sky is always creating new clouds. The pot is always boiling.

There are times when one feels close to drowning in the mystery of life itself.

The self may not be something, but neither is it nothing. It is simply ungraspable, unfindable. I am who I am not because of an essential self hidden away in the core of my being, but because of the unprecedented and unrepeatable matrix of conditions that have formed me.

The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for...destruction.

The moment you accept what troubles you've been given, the door will open.

The main subject (of taking the Precepts and the Bodhisattva Vow) is how to become a transmitter of actual light - life light. Practice takes place to shape your whole ability to reflect the light coming through you, and to generate - to regenerate - your system, so the light increases its power. Each precept is a remark about hard climbing, maybe climbing down. You don't use the precepts for accomplishing your own personality, or fulfilling your dream of your highest image. You don't use the precepts in that way. The precepts are the reflected light-world of one precept, which is Buddha's mind itself, which is the presence of Buddha. Zazen is the first formulation of the accomplishment of Buddha existing.

 The more you sense the rareness and value of your own life, the more you realize that how you use it, how you manifest it, is all your responsibility. We face such a big task, so naturally a person sits down for a while. It's not an intended action, it is a natural action.

The goal of Buddhism is to bring about right human life, not to have the teaching, or teacher, or sentient beings, or Buddhism, or Buddha. 

But if you think that without any training your can have that kind of life, that is a big mistake.

The farther you enter the truth, the deeper it is.

The Buddha teaches that there are many wholesome desires: the desire to serve, the desire to give, the desire to be free, the desire to cultivate qualities of heart that ennoble our lives and lead us to connect with others. It’s desire that causes us to seek depth and understanding. It is desire that brings about wholesome social change and justice.

The bliss of a truth-seeking life is attainable for anyone who follows the path of unselfishness. If you cling to your wealth, it is better to throw it away than to let it poison your heart. But if  you don’t cling to it but use it wisely, then you will be a blessing to people. It’s not wealth and power that enslave men but the clinging to wealth and power. 

My teaching does not require anyone to become homeless or resign the world unless he wants to, but it does require everyone to free himself from the illusion that he is a permanent self and to act with integrity while giving up his craving for pleasure. 

And whatever people do, whether in the world or as a recluse, let them put their whole heart into it. Let them be committed and energetic, and if they have to struggle, let them do it without envy or hatred. Let them lilve not a life of self but a life of truth, and in that way bliss will enter their hearts.

Sorcerers say that true rebellion, and humanity's only way out as a species, is to stage a revolution against their own stupidity. As you can understand, this is solitary work.

Sometimes there are very good reasons to be intolerant. The act in question may be destructive of its victim, it may also destroy the actor himself, and it may dangerously undermine the society in which it is being carried out. Any of these reasons may justify the refusal to tolerate some activity or development going on in the society around us. Meekness and complicity in the face of some acts of evil imply anything but enlightenment. These may be better described as cowardice or indifference, a failure of moral nerve. Therefore, indiscriminate tolerance not only falls short of perfection, it may collude in the perpetuation of some form of evil.