Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.

When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say, 'Do not walk so fast, the rain is everywhere.'

If you cannot bow to Buddha, you cannot be a Buddha. It is arrogance.

As long as we have some definite idea about or some hope in the future, we cannot really be serious with the moment that exists right now.

People say that practicing Zen is difficult, but there is a misunderstanding as to why. It is not difficult because it is hard to sit in the cross- legged position, or to attain enlightenment. It is difficult because it is hard to keep our mind pure and our practice pure in its fundamental sense.

Even though you try to put people under control, it is impossible. You cannot do it. The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good. That is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them.

If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness.