If a man has desires but cannot satisfy them, or has money but does not use it, he is exactly the same as a poor man... When it comes to this point, there is no difference between poverty and wealth.

If you wish to be free from all blame, there is no better course than to be always sincere... All blame from others is due to pretending experience, making oneself out to be skillful, putting on superior airs, and looking down on people.

A man who does not like to picture himself standing beneath the clouded moon on a night when the plum blossom smells sweet, or brushing at daybreak through the dewy moor—such a man had better have nothing to do with women at all.

Pleasure is liking and loving. We never for a moment cease to seek it... That we are forever the servants of our likes and dislikes is entirely for the sake of pleasure and pain.

Of a man's abilities first comes knowledge of the teachings of the sages... Next should be learned the art of medicine. Without medicine, a man cannot care for his own body, nor help others, nor perform his duties to his parents

Mistakes always happen when an easy place is reached.

You should never play to win but so as not to lose. Think what moves will be quickest beaten, avoid making them, and make whatever move will take most time to beat. In learning any accomplishment, in controlling one's own conduct, and in governing a nation, the same rule applies.

It is only at night that brilliance and color are pleasing. By day let your appearance be simple and sober but at night it is well to wear bright and gay garments.

Much better to not marry. Living day in and day out with the same man or woman—of whatever sort—makes the other less attractive and become disliked. By keeping apart and only staying together from time to time, they reach a deep intimacy that even the passing of many years will not destroy.

If you pour water into a large vessel and then make a tiny hole in it, though it drips but a little, yet if it goes on steadily leaking, soon there is none left... Therefore the dealers in coffins can never make enough to keep a stock.

The one Moon reflects itself wherever there is a sheet of water,
And all the moons in the waters are embraced within the one Moon.

The Inner Light is beyond praise and blame;
Like space it knows no boundaries,
It is only when you hunt for it that you lose it;
You remain silent and it speaks; you speak, and it is dumb.

Zen is the complete realization of mind,
The complete cutting off of delusion,
The power of wise vision penetrating directly to the unborn.

People hear the Buddha's doctrine of immediacy and if they accept it, the demons will be crushed as easily as a roofing tile. But if they cannot accept, what a pity!

If we hold exclusively to Emptiness, we deny the entire causal world;
All is then attributed to chance, with no ruling principle, inviting evil to prevail.
The same error occurs when one holds exclusively to the manifested, denying the Emptiness;
That would be like throwing oneself into the flames in order to avoid being drowned in the water.

When you truly awaken, you have no formal merit. In the multiplicity of the relative world, you cannot find such freedom.

To live in nothingness is to ignore cause and effect; this chaos leads only to disaster.

Don't belittle the sky by looking through a pipe. The great elephant does not loiter on the rabbit's path. Great enlightenment is not concerned with details.

They mistake the pointing finger for the moon. They are idle dreamers lost in form and sensation.

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.