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.

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

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

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.

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

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 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!