Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.

What we really are is, first of all, the whole of our body.

The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention.

And the more you become aware of the unknown self - if you become aware of it - the more you realize that it is inseparably connected with everything else that is.

The attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on.

And although our bodies are bounded with skin, and we can differentiate between outside and inside, they cannot exist except in a certain kind of natural environment.

A myth is an image in terms of which we try to make sense of the world.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.”

Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery - the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets - is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together.

I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

I owe my solitude to other people.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

If we live, we live; if we die, we die; if we suffer, we suffer; if we are terrified, we are terrified. There is no problem about it.