
Those who are
broad-minded and considerate
are like the spring breeze, warm and nurturing,
at whose touch all beings grow. Those who are envious
and cruel are like the snow of the northlands,
stilling and freezing, at whose touch
all beings die.

Those who are
broad-minded and considerate
are like the spring breeze, warm and nurturing,
at whose touch all beings grow. Those who are envious
and cruel are like the snow of the northlands,
stilling and freezing, at whose touch
all beings die.

Students,
sit earnestly in zazen,
and you will realize that everything
born in this world is ultimately empty,
including oneself and the original face of existence.
All things indeed emerge out of emptiness. This original
formlessness is “Buddha,” and all other similar terms — Buddha-
nature, Buddhahood, Buddha-mind, Awakened One, Patriarch,
God — are merely different expressions for the same
emptiness. Misunderstand this and you
will end up distracted
for eons.

How boring to
sit idly on the floor, not meditating,
not breaking through. Look at the horses
racing along the Kamo River!
That’s zazen!

Scholar’s studies
can become an obstacle,
making the mind difficult to control.
The effect of zazen is to let your mind and
body really listen to you. Quiet sitting is good.
Zazen can reasonably be taken as far
as one chooses—one can advance
by the light discovered
within it.
There’s no deception
in it. It’s a natural need in a human
being’s life.It’s the call by the Universe
to a human being’s true nature.
Zazen perfects the
human being.
The mission of humans is
to cease producing the waves of thought that
have occurred up until now as a result of egotism.
When that is done, a human being is
born for the first time.
everyone is originally pure, not different from the buddha

The universe
and I are of the same root.
The myriad things and I are
one body. That is
zazen.
Kodo Sawaki Roshi