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.

If I tell you something, you will stick to it and limit your own capacity to find out for yourself.

When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.

When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore.

We should not be just a fan of dragons; we should always be the dragon himself. Then we will not be afraid of any dragon.

It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.

So the secret is just to say 'Yes!' and jump off from here. Then there is no problem. It means to be yourself, always yourself, without sticking to an old self.