Top 100 Dōgen Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “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.”

— Dōgen

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

— Dōgen

53. “Mountains and oceans have whole worlds of innumerable wondrous features. We should understand that it is not only our distant surroundings that are like this, but even what is right here, even a single drop of water.”

— Dōgen

54. “There are mountains hidden in mountains. There are mountains hidden in hiddenness. This is complete understanding.”

— Dōgen

55. “Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming.”

— Dōgen

56. “Zazen is the ultimate practice. This is indeed the True Self. The Buddhadharma is not to be sought outside of this.”

— Dōgen

57. “Do not doubt that mountains walk simply because they may not appear to walk like humans.”

— Dōgen

58. “Do not view mountains from the scale of human thought.”

— Dōgen

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

— Dōgen

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

— Dōgen

61. “Though it has no thought of keeping watch, it’s not for naught that the scarecrow stands in the grain field.”

— Dōgen

62. “Let your heart go out and abide in things. Let things return and abide in your heart.”

— Dōgen

63. “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.”

— Dōgen

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

— Dōgen

65. “Practice and enlightenment are not two.”

— Dōgen

66. “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.”

— Dōgen

67. “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.””

— Dōgen

68. “There are myriads of forms and hundreds of grasses throughout the entire earth, yet each grass and each form itself is the entire earth.”

— Dōgen

69. “To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.”

— Dōgen

70. “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.”

— Dōgen

71. “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.”

— Dōgen

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

— Dōgen

73. “In a snowfall that covers the winter grass a white heron uses his own whiteness to disappear.”

— Dōgen

74. “When the old plum tree blooms, the entire world blooms.”

— Dōgen

75. “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.”

— Dōgen

76. “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.”

— Dōgen

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

— Dōgen

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

— Dōgen

79. “Does a dragon still sing from within a withered tree?”

— Dōgen

80. “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.”

— Dōgen

81. “Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way.”

— Dōgen

82. “The color of the mountains is Buddha’s body; the sound of running water is his great speech.”

— Dōgen

83. “Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen as though you are saving your head from fire.”

— Dōgen

84. “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.”

— Dōgen

85. “Those who practice know whether realization is attained or not, just as those who drink water know whether it is hot or cold.”

— Dōgen

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

— Dōgen

87. “Time is three eyes and eight elbows.”

— Dōgen

88. “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.”

— Dōgen

89. “Every man possesses the Buddha-nature. Do not demean yourselves.”

— Dōgen

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

— Dōgen

91. “There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha Way.”

— Dōgen

92. “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.”

— Dōgen

93. “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.”

— Dōgen

94. “When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots – just paint Spring.”

— Dōgen

95. “Because monks come from the midst of purity, they consider as good and pure what does not arouse desire among other people.”

— Dōgen

96. “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.”

— Dōgen

97. “People who truly follow the Way would do well to conceal the fact that they are Buddhists.”

— Dōgen

98. “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.”

— Dōgen

99. “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.”

— Dōgen

100. “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.”

— Dōgen