Truth is perfect and complete in itself.
It is not something newly discovered;
It has always existed.
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

Deep in the mountains,
on an isolated peak,
I live on my own in a stand of pines.

In a simple hut,
I sit meditating without concerns,
silent and alone, dwelling peacefully, lighthearted.

Once you’ve awakened,
it’s done:
no effort needed.

– Yung-chia (d.713)

Traceless, no more need to hide.
Now the old mirror reflects everything,
Autumn light moistened by faint mist.

– Suian (Southern Sung Dynasty)

Before the first step is taken the goal is reached.
Before the tongue is moved the speech is finished.
More than brilliant intuition is needed,
to find the origin of the right road.

– Mu-mon 1228

The perfume of sandalwood,
rosebay or jasmine
cannot travel against the wind.
But the fragrance of virtue
travels even against the wind,
as far as the ends of the world.

– Buddha

Meditating quietly I rout the deadly dragon.

– Wang Wei (699-761)

Two masters were walking by a pool in which carp were swimming.
One master said “Look at those carp. How happy they are swimming in the pool.”
The other master said “How can you presume to know whether the carp are happy or not?”
The first master replied “How can you presume to know I don’t know how the carp feel”

In spring, hundreds of flowers;
In autumn, a harvest moon;
In summer, a refreshing breeze;
In winter, snow will accompany you.
If useless things do not hang in your mind,
any season is a good season for you.

– Mu-mon 1228

The morning glory blooms but an hour.
Yet it differs not in heart from a giant pine,
That lives for a thousand years.

– Matsunaga Teitiku

Do not deny not by denying.

– zen saying

“It has been told that Nature abhors a vacuum.
I disagree.
Nature doesn’t mind a vacuum.
It is man that continually insists on filling them.”