"This is Zen’s fundamental point. In our essence of mind, mountains are simply mountains, flowers are flowers, and the sound of the wind is the sound of the wind. We hear, we see, and we leave each thing as we hear or see it, adding nothing at all to it.

Everything in nature has a physical body, yet a rock doesn’t call itself a rock or a flower call itself a flower. Only humans are stuck on how they are or should be. The healthiest way of being is to have no need to explain our being, but for it  to manifest naturally. We get stuck because we feel a need to explain.

Nonthought does not mean not to think; it means not to be carried away by any particular idea.

The purpose of Zen is not to become people who don’t think, but to think only what we we need to; not to be lost in unnecessary thoughts, but to see what is most necessary right now. If we cook rice, we have to think about how much to cook and how to do it the best way. If we are chopping wood, we have to think about the best way to chop, or if we grow vegetables, we have to think about the best way to cultivate them. 

Don’t think about extra things, but live totally embracing just what comes to you, not carrying thoughts about the past or wondering what’s going to happen in the future. [...] We miss the present when we carry around these kinds of thoughts. Live this moment fully in the most appropriate way."

Finding Our Essence of Mind - Shodo Harada Roshi - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review - Spring 2018

"What is zen? Zen is the unsymbolization of the world and all the things in it."

The tao of zen

"The deliberate, conscious practice of zen is a self-defeating process, an exercise in futility. This self-defeating process is ended when the practice of zen becomes the same as ordinary activity. When nothing noteworthy distinguishes zen from anything else, zen becomes unpretentious and inconspicuous. Thus those who practice everyday zen simply disappear into the ordinary."

The tao of zen

"The dilemma is that zen, once it seems to be lost, can only be found by becoming more lost."

The tao of zen

"The aliveness of zen has entirely to do with eliminating the conceptualizations that organize, categorize and institutionalize experience."

The tao of zen

"Todo o sistema da disciplina zen, pode-se dizer, não é senão uma série de tentativas cuja finalidade é deixar-nos absolutamente livres de qualquer tipo de escravidão."

A doutrina zen da não-mente - p.25

"O intelecto habitualmente separa o fato do conceito. O Zen Budismo procura conseguir um estado mental acima da mente perceptiva; quanto mais amplo for o uso de palavras, tanto maior será a tendência para a confusão."

Budismo: psicologia do autoconhecimento - p. 241