Our normal sense of the person as a lonely island of consciousness, is a dramatic illusion based on theological imagery.

If you are afraid of death, be afraid. The point is to get with it, to let it take over - fear, ghosts, pains, transience, dissolution, and all. And then comes the hitherto unbelievable surprise; you don't die because you were never born. You had just forgotten who you are.

More and more we try to effect an adaptation to life by means of external gadgets, and attempt to solve our problems by conscious thinking rather than unconscious 'know-how'. This is much less to our advantage than we like to suppose.

What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself.

We know that from time to time there arise among human beings people who seem to exude love as naturally as the sun gives out heat.

The world is a marvelous system of wiggles.

That's a waste of time. If you really understand Zen... you can use any book. You could use the Bible. You could use Alice in Wonderland. You could use the dictionary, because... the sound of the rain needs no translation.