In your everyday life you always have opportunities for enlightenment. If you go to the rest room, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you cook, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you clean the floor, there is a chance to attain enlightenment.

We try, and we try, and we fail; and then we go deeper.

Life without zazen is like winding your clock without setting it. It runs perfectly well, but it dosen't tell time.

Big mind is something to express, not something to figure out. Big mind is something you have, not something to seek for.

Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.

As soon as you see something, you already start to intellectualize it. As soon as you intellectualize something, it is no longer what you saw.

The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. The innocence of the first inquiry—what am I?—is needed throughout Zen practice. The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. It is the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything.