Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

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

It is not after we understand the truth that we attain enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live - to exist here and now.

So for a period of time each day, try to sit, without moving, without expecting anything, as if you were in your last moment. Moment after moment you feel your last instant. In each inhalation and each exhalation there are countless instants of time. Your intention is to live in each instant.

When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice.

Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.

The secret of Soto Zen is just two words: not always so.... In Japanese, it's two words, three words in English. That is the secret of our practice.