Concentration comes not from trying hard to focus on something, but from keeping your mind open and directing it at nothing.

When you sit, everything sits with you.

Bowing is a very serious practice. You should be prepared to bow, even in your last moment. even though it is impossible to get rid of our self-centered desires, we have to do it. Our true nature wants us to.

We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.

In the zazen posture, your mind and body have, great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.

Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything.

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