Top 100 Dogen's Quotes

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

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #912747
#2. That you carry yourself forward and experience the myriad things is delusion. That the myriad things come forward and experience themselves is awakening

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1102174
#3. People like what is not true and they don't like what is true.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1074158
#4. 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.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1058670
#5. In the stream,
Rushing past
To the dusty world,
My fleeting form
Casts no reflection.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1052894
#6. Students, when you want to say something, think about it three times before you say it. Speak only if your words will benefit yourselves and others. Do not speak if it brings no benefit.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1020083
#7. Does a dragon still sing from within a withered tree?

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1012683
#8. There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment; There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1003569
#9. If you cannot find the truth within yourself, where else do you expect to find it?

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #998780
#10. All that's visible springs from causes intimate to you. While walking, sitting, lying down, the body itself is complete truth. If someone asks the inner meaning of this: Inside the treasury of dharma eye a single grain of dust.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #983250
#11. 59. "This dew-like life will fade away; avoid involvement in superfluous things." ~

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #983205
#12. Because monks come from the midst of purity, they consider as good and pure what does not arouse desire among other people.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #936642
#13. Inspiration comes from everything from the entire world, and it's hard to pinpoint one thing. I can trace one inspiration to the writing of 13th-century Zen master Dogen Zenji, who writes beautifully about time.

Ruth Ozeki

Dogen's Quotes #926821
#14. Because mountains are high and broad, the way of riding the clouds is always reached in the mountains; the inconceivable power of soaring in the wind comes freely from the mountains

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1104001
#15. To start from the self and try to understand all things is delusion. To let the self be awakened by all things is enlightenment.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #907435
#16. 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.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #900800
#17. There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha Way.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #870119
#18. Your body is like a dew-drop on the morning grass, your life is as brief as a flash of lightning. Momentary and vain, it is lost in a moment. (From 'Fukan zazengi')

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #855720
#19. 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.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #846567
#20. Just study Buddhism. Don't follow the sentiments of the world.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #815973
#21. Practice and enlightenment are not two.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #811654
#22. 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.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #796737
#23. Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma see no Dharma in everyday actions. They have not yet discovered that there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #788250
#24. Sitting is the gateway of truth to total liberation.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #754594
#25. Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #742072
#26. Zen Master Dogen has pointed out that anxiety, when accepted, is the driving force to enlightenment in that it lays bare the human dilemma at the same time that it ignites our desire to break out of it.

Philip Kapleau

Dogen's Quotes #1292456
#27. What you think in your own mind to be good, or what people of the world think is good, is not necessarily good.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1447833
#28. In autumn even though I may see it again, how can I sleep with the moon this evening?

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1441166
#29. If you want to see things just as they are, then you yourself must practice just as you are.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1432562
#30. Students today should live fully every moment of time. This dew-like life fades away; time speeds swiftly. In this short life of ours, avoid involvement in superfluous things and just study the Way.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1424431
#31. Since it is the practice of enlightenment, that practice has no beginning and since it is enlightenment within the practice, that realization has no end.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1400261
#32. In a snowfall that covers the winter grass a white heron uses his own whiteness to disappear.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1355438
#33. When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1337714
#34. 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.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1327143
#35. Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1324084
#36. What is the way of the Buddha? It is to study the self. What is the study of the self? It is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to enlightened by everything in the world.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1316741
#37. Although we say mountains belong to the country, actually, they belong to those that love them.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1302627
#38. 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

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1302544
#39. Do not be amazed by the true dragon.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #722138
#40. When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots, but just paint Spring. To paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots is to paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots - it is not yet painting Spring.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1287988
#41. 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.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1267132
#42. Each moment of zazen is equally wholeness of practice, equally wholeness of realization. This is not only practice while sitting, it is like a hammer striking emptiness: before and after, its exquisite peal permeates everywhere. How can it be limited to this moment?

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1211914
#43. When the old plum tree blooms, the entire world blooms.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1185786
#44. 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.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1175928
#45. To what shall
I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected
In dewdrops,
Shaken from a crane's bill.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1166520
#46. Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1163979
#47. Those who regard worldly affairs as a hindrance to buddha dharma think only that there is no buddha dharma in the secular world; they do not understand that there is no secular world in buddha dharma.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1152622
#48. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1137142
#49. A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1134091
#50. Though it has no thought of keeping watch, it's not for naught that the scarecrow stands in the grain field.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1110790
#51. 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.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #211101
#52. There are myriads of forms and hundreds of grasses throughout the entire earth, yet each grass and each form itself is the entire earth.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #408249
#53. The coming and going of birth and death is a painting. Unsurpassed enlightenment is a painting. The entire phenomenal universe and the empty sky are nothing but a painting.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #370296
#54. Dogen Zenj rightly said that, 'Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken, take heed and not squander life'.

Reiju Gensho

Dogen's Quotes #348742
#55. Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realize the unity of all things.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #347037
#56. You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #334980
#57. Nothing can be gained by extensive study and wide reading. Give them up immediately.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #322476
#58. To escape from the world means that one's mind is not concerned with the opinions of the world.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #312450
#59. Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #300126
#60. To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #286328
#61. A zen master's life is one continuous mistake.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #273998
#62. 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." ~

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #259563
#63. If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it?

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #253783
#64. The true person is
Not anyone in particular;
But like the deep blue color
Of the limitless sky,
It is everyone,
Everywhere in the world.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #413330
#65. Why abandon a seat in your own home to wander in vain through dusty regions of another land? If you make one false step, you miss what is right before your eyes.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #174106
#66. Yet you must not cling to the words of the old sages either; they, too, may not be right. Even if you believe them, you should be alert so that , in the event that something superior comes along, you may follow that.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #163359
#67. The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #150432
#68. Consider that nirvana is itself no other than our life.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #150415
#69. I asked, "What are words?" The tenzo said, "One, two, three, four, five." I asked again, "What is practice?" "Nothing in the entire universe is hidden."

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #148720
#70. Learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #107978
#71. When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself from it.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #94892
#72. Understand clearly that when a great need appears a great use appears also; when there is small need there is small use; it is obvious, then, that full use is made of all things at all times according to the necessity thereof.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #79515
#73. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #64030
#74. 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.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #59601
#75. People who truly follow the Way would do well to conceal the fact that they are Buddhists.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #9234
#76. Coming, going, the waterbirds don't leave a trace, don't follow a path.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #555944
#77. One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #701731
#78. Let your heart go out and abide in things. Let things return and abide in your heart.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #686305
#79. At the moment of giving birth to a child, is the mother separate from the child? You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child. - Dogen Zenji, Mountains and Waters Sutra

Karen Maezen Miller

Dogen's Quotes #680127
#80. In the mundane, nothing is sacred. In sacredness, nothing is mundane.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #678327
#81. If you want to do a certain thing, you first have to be a certain person. Once you become that certain person, you will not care anymore about doing that certain thing.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #677094
#82. Refraining from all evil, not clinging to birth and death, working in deep compassion for all sentient beings, respecting those over you and pitying those below you, without any detesting or desiring, worrying or lamentation - this is what is called Buddha. Do not search beyond it.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #650947
#83. Do not doubt that mountains walk simply because they may not appear to walk like humans.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #640719
#84. It's too late to be ready.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #629300
#85. Clearly I know, the mind is mountains, rivers, and the great earth; sun, moon, and stars.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #618233
#86. If he cannot stop the mind that seeks after fame and profit, he will spend his life without finding peace.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #616054
#87. Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #578674
#88. There are mountains hidden in mountains. There are mountains hidden in hiddenness. This is complete understanding.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #573611
#89. Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #1480
#90. You should stop searching for phrases and chasing after words. Take the backward step and turn the light inward. Your body-mind of itself will drop off and your original face will appear. If you want to attain just this, immediately practice just this.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #541850
#91. 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.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #541320
#92. Meditation is not a way to enlightenment, Nor is it a method of achieving anything at all. It is peace itself. It is the actualization of wisdom, The ultimate truth of the oneness of all things.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #525262
#93. If we seek the Buddha outside the mind, the Buddha changes into a devil.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #520942
#94. That the self advances and confirms the ten thousand things is called delusion; that the ten thousand things advance and confirm the self is called enlightenment.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #508731
#95. When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #506458
#96. [W]hen you practise right meditation, you 'cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self.

Steve Hagen

Dogen's Quotes #505344
#97. Forgetting oneself is opening oneself

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #504493
#98. Just practice good, do good for others, without thinking of making yourself known so that you may gain reward. Really bring benefit to others, gaining nothing for yourself. This is the primary requisite for breaking free of attachments to the Self.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #440546
#99. Those who practice know whether realization is attained or not, just as those who drink water know whether it is hot or cold

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #424317
#100. I haven't got any Buddhism. I live by letting things happen.

Dogen

Dogen's Quotes #423176

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