Dogen Quotes - Page 5

Consider that nirvana is itself no other than our life.

Do not be amazed by the true dragon.

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

Be moderate in eating and drinking. Mindful of the passing of time, engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from fire.

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.

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.

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

If we look at the world with a deluded body and mind, we will think that our self is permanent. But if we practice correctly and return to our true self, we will realize that nothing is permanent

Through one word, or seven words, or three times five, even if you investigate thoroughly myriad forms, nothing can be depended upon. Night advances, the moon glows and falls into the ocean. The black dragon jewel you have been searching for, is everywhere.

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

Handle even a single leaf of green in such a way that it manifests the body of the Buddha. This in turn allows the Buddha to manifest through the leaf.

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

When mountains and waters are painted, blue, green, and red paints are used, strange rocks and wondrous stones are used, the four jewels and the seven treasures are used. Rice-cakes are painted in the same manner. When a person is painted, the four great elements and five skandhas are used.

To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no trace continues endlessly.

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

Yet, though it is like this, simply, flowers fall amid our longing and weeds spring up amid our antipathy.

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

Does a dragon still sing from within a withered tree?

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

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

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

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

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

The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the Dharma gate of repose and bliss, the practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. Traps and snares can never reach it. Once its heart is grasped, you are like the dragon when he gains the water, like the tiger when she enters the mountain. For you must know that just there (in zazen) the right Dharma is manifesting itself and that, from the first, dullness and distraction are struck aside.

Mountains and rivers at this very moment are the actualization of the world of the ancient Buddhas. Each, abiding in its phenomenal expression, realizes completeness.