The more you practice zazen, the more you will be able to accept something as your own, whatever it is.

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

Wabi means spare, impoverished; simple and functional. It connotes a transcendence of fad and fashion. The spirit of wabi imbues all the Zen arts, from calligraphy to karate, from the tea ceremony to Zen archery.

Ego is a social institution with no physical reality. The ego is simply your symbol of yourself.

If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere.

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.

So it is not a matter of whether it is possible to attain Buddhahood, or if it is possible to make a tile a jewel. But just to work, just to live in this world with this understanding is the most important point, and that is our practice. That is true zazen.