Dogen quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Dogen

Dogen Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Dogen on Wise Famous Quotes.

Although we say mountains belong to the country, actually, they belong to those that love them.

Truth is not far away. It is nearer than near. There is no need to attain it, since not one of your steps leads away from it.

When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

If you cannot find the truth within yourself, where else do you expect to find it?

Look for Buddha outside your own mind,
and Buddha becomes the devil.

Zazen is an activity that is an extension of the universe. Zazen is not the life of an individual, it's the universe that's breathing.

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it?

Time is three eyes and eight elbows.

If we seek the Buddha outside the mind, the Buddha changes into a devil.

Clearly I know, the mind is mountains, rivers, and the great earth; sun, moon, and stars.

When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself.

People who truly follow the Way would do well to conceal the fact that they are Buddhists.

Working with plants, trees, fences and walls, if they practice sincerely they will attain enlightenment.

In the mundane, nothing is sacred. In sacredness, nothing is mundane.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

Just study Buddhism. Don't follow the sentiments of the world.

To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfections.

When the old plum tree blooms, the entire world blooms.

One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.

Do not miss the opportunity of offering even a single drop into the ocean of merit or a grain atop the mountain of the roots of beneficial activity.

If you want to see things just as they are, then you yourself must practice just as you are.

People like what is not true and they don't like what is true.

Let your heart go out and abide in things. Let things return and abide in your heart.

Zazen is the ultimate practice. This is indeed the True Self. The Buddhadharma is not to be sought outside of this.

Realization doesn't destroy the individual any more than the reflection of the moon breaks a drop of water. A drop of water can reflect the whole sky.

If you study a lot because you are worried that others will think badly of you for being ignorant and you'll feel stupid, this is a serious mistake.

Though it has no thought of keeping watch, it's not for naught that the scarecrow stands in the grain field.

What you think in your own mind to be good, or what people of the world think is good, is not necessarily good.

Know that the true dharma emerges of itself [during the practice of zazen], clearing away hindrances and distractions.

Do not travel to other dusty lands, forsaking your own sitting place; if you cannot find the truth where you are now, you will never find it.

Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech.

To what shall
I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected
In dewdrops,
Shaken from a crane's bill.

In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.

There are myriads of forms and hundreds of grasses throughout the entire earth, yet each grass and each form itself is the entire earth.

A zen master's life is one continuous mistake.

In autumn even though I may see it again, how can I sleep with the moon this evening?

To escape from the world means that one's mind is not concerned with the opinions of the world.

What is reality? An icicle forming in fire.

When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves.

There are mountains hidden in mountains. There are mountains hidden in hiddenness. This is complete understanding.

59. "This dew-like life will fade away; avoid involvement in superfluous things." ~

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

Does a dragon still sing from within a withered tree?

Each moment is all being, each moment is the entire world. Reflect now whether any being or any world is left out of the present moment.

Sitting is the gateway of truth to total liberation.

To enter the Buddha Way is to stop discriminating between good and evil and to cast aside the mind that says this is good and that is bad.

Do not practice buddha-dharma with the thought that it is to benefit others.

In a snowfall that covers the winter grass a white heron uses his own whiteness to disappear.

When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself from it.

Forgetting oneself is opening oneself

You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child.

Every man possesses the Buddha-nature. Do not demean yourselves.

Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming.

Those who practice know whether realization is attained or not, just as those who drink water know whether it is hot or cold

The recognition of the coming and going of things is a first step in training and practice.

Inside the treasury of the dharma eye a single grain of dust.

When other sects speak well of Zen, the first thing that they praise is its poverty.

Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.

The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech.

There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment; There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice.

There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha Way.

Do not doubt that mountains walk simply because they may not appear to walk like humans.

I haven't got any Buddhism. I live by letting things happen.

Nothing can be gained by extensive study and wide reading. Give them up immediately.

In the stream,
Rushing past
To the dusty world,
My fleeting form
Casts no reflection.

Do not arouse disdainful mind when you prepare a broth of wild grasses; do not arouse joyful mind when you prepare a fine cream soup.

To start from the self and try to understand all things is delusion. To let the self be awakened by all things is enlightenment.

Coming, going, the waterbirds don't leave a trace, don't follow a path.

If he cannot stop the mind that seeks after fame and profit, he will spend his life without finding peace.

We must always be disturbed by the truth.

If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.

Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way.

Practice and enlightenment are not two.

Do not be amazed by the true dragon.

184. "Focus your mind on one thing, absorb the old examples, study the actions of the masters- penetrate deeply into a single form of practice." ~

Because monks come from the midst of purity, they consider as good and pure what does not arouse desire among other people.

It's too late to be ready.

If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

Consider that nirvana is itself no other than our life.

Do not view mountains from the scale of human thought