Keep your hands open, and all the sands of the desert can pass through them. Close them, and all you can feel is a bit of grit.

Train the body and develop stamina and endurance. But the spirit of competition and power that presides over them is not good, it reflects a distorted vision of life. The root of the martial arts is not there.

If you have a glass full of liquid you can discourse forever on its qualities, discuss whether it is cold, warm, whether it is really and truly composed of H-2-O, or even mineral water, or saki. Meditation is Drinking it!

You cannot separate any part from the whole: interdependence rules the cosmic order.

If we achieve satori and the satori shows, like a bit of dogshit stuck to the top of our nose, that is not so good.

If you are not happy here and now, you never will be.

To practice Zen or the Martial Arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly, without reserve - as if you might die in the next instant