Koans by Dogen Zenji

Koan: A puzzling, often paradoxical statement or story, used in Zen Buddhism as an aid to meditation and a means of gaining spiritual awakening.

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The true person is
Not anyone in particular
But
Like the limitless deep blue sky,
It is everywhere, and everyone in the world.

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In the stream,
Rushing past
To the dusty world,
My fleeting form

Casts no reflection.

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Because the mind is free --Listening to the rain
Dripping from the eaves,
The drops become
One with me.

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"Mind itself is buddha" -- difficult to practice, but easy to explain;
"No mind, no buddha" -- difficult to explain, but easy to practice.

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I won't even stopat the valley's brook
for fear that
my shadow
may flow into the world.

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Midnight,
No waves,
no wind, the empty boat
is flooded with moonlight.

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Water birds
going and coming
their traces disappear
but they never forget their path.

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The World? Moonlit
Drops shaken
From the crane’s bill

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To study the buddha way is to study the self.
To study the self is to forget the self.

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What is the old buddha mind?" The master answered, "Fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles."

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What is the old buddha mind?"
The master answered, "The world collapses in ruins."
The monk asked, "Why does the world collapse in ruins?"
The master answered, "Better without my body."

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Following the Buddha Way really means following yourself.

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Make no use of incense or bowing or chanting or ceremonies or scriptures.

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Remembering is time, forgetting is time.
Black lines of scripture are time,
Great and small doubts are time,
Hungry ghosts and naked demons are time.