Dogen Quotes

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

— Dogen

“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

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

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

“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

“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

“Since we are provided with both a body and a mind, we grasp onto the physical forms we see. Since we are provided with both a body and a mind, we cling to the sounds we hear. As a consequence, we make ourselves inseparable from all things, yet we are not like some shadowy figure 'lodging' in a mirror or like the moon in water. Whenever we witness what is on the one side, its opposite side will be in darkness.”

— Dogen

“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

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

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

“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.”

— Dogen

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

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

— Dogen

Whenever learners or those beyond learning awaken the mind, for the first time they plant one buddha-nature. Working with the four elements and five clusters, if they practice sincerely they attain enlightenment. Working with plants, trees, fences and walls, if they practice sincerely they will attain enlightenment. This is because the four elements and five clusters and plants, trees, fences and walls are fellow students; because they are of the same essence, because they are the same mind and the same life, because they are the same body and the same mechanism.

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

“Studying the Buddha way is studying oneself. Studying oneself is forgetting oneself. Forgetting oneself is being enlightened by all things. Being enlightened by all things is to shed the body-mind of oneself, and those of others. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this traceless enlightenment continues endlessly.”

— Dogen

“Time is three eyes and eight elbows.”

— Dogen

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

“Sitting is the gateway of truth to total liberation.”

— Dogen

“Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.”

— Dogen

“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

“An ancient buddha said, "Mountains are mountains; waters are waters." These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.”

— Dogen

“In doing zazen it is desirable to have a quiet room. You should be temperate in eating and drinking, forsaking all delusive relationships. Setting everything aside, think of neither good nor evil, right nor wrong. Thus having stopped the various functions of your mind, five up even the idea of becoming a Buddha.”

— Dogen

“Do not be amazed by the true dragon.”

— Dogen

“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

As I study both the exoteric and the esoteric schools of Buddhism, they maintain that human beings are endowed with Dharma-nature by birth. If this is the case, why did the Buddhas of all ages - undoubtedly in possession of enlightenment - find it necessary to seek enlightenment and engage in spiritual practice?

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

“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

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

— Dogen

“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

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

— Dogen

“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

“Something you want badly enough can always be gained. No matter how fierce the enemy, how remote the beautiful lady, or how carefully guarded the treasure, there is always a means to the goal for the earnest seeker. The unseen help of the guardian gods of heaven and earth assure fulfillment.”

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

“We must always be disturbed by the truth.”

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

“Students of the Way must not study Buddhism for the sake of themselves. They must study Buddhism only for the sake of Buddhism. The key to this is to renounce both body and mind without holding anything back and to offer them to the great sea of Buddhism.”

— Dogen

IF YOU WOULD BE FREE OF GREED, FIRST YOU HAVE TO LEAVE EGOTISM BEHIND.
THE BEST MENTAL EXERCISE FOR RELINQUISHING EGOTISM IS CONTEMPLATING IMPERMANENCE.

— Dogen

“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

“When a buddha is painted, not only a clay altar or lump of earth is used, but the thirty-two marks, a blade of grass, and the cultivation of wisdom for incalculable eons are used. As a Buddha has been painted on a single scroll in this way, all buddhas are painted buddhas, and all painted buddhas are actual buddhas.”

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

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

— Dogen

“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

“Do no harmful actions, do not become attached to the cycle of death and rebirth, show kindness, respect the old and have compassion for the young, do not have a heart that rejects or a heart that covets and have no worry or sadness in your heart. This is what is called enlightenment. Do not seek it elsewhere.”

— Dogen

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

— Dogen