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You should stop searching for phrases and chasing after words. Take the backward step and turn the light inward. Your body-mind of itself will drop off and your original face will appear. If you want to attain just this, immediately practice just this.

Dogen

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Dogen
Age: 53 †
Born: 1200
Born: January 19
Died: 1253
Died: September 29
Bhikkhu
Leader
Philosopher
Teacher
Whitefield
Greater Manchester
Dōgen Zenji
Dōgen Kigen
Eihei Dōgen
Dogen
Dougen
Turns
Originals
Attain
Faces
Original
Chasing
Words
Step
Searching
Light
Steps
Inward
Body
Turn
Phrases
Take
Stop
Drop
Mind
Practice
Immediately
Face
Appear
Backward

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Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realize the unity of all things.
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As I study both the exoteric and the esoteric schools of Buddhism, they maintain that human beings are endowed with Dharma-nature by birth. If this is the case, why did the Buddhas of all ages - undoubtedly in possession of enlightenment - find it necessary to seek enlightenment and engage in spiritual practice?
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Be moderate in eating and drinking. Mindful of the passing of time, engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from fire.
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To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.
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Yet, though it is like this, simply, flowers fall amid our longing and weeds spring up amid our antipathy.
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What is the way of the Buddha? It is to study the self. What is the study of the self? It is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to enlightened by everything in the world.
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Continuous practice, day after day, is the most appropriate way of expressing gratitude. This means that you practice continuously, without wasting a single day of your life, without using it for your own sake. Why is it so? Your life is a fortunate outcome of the continuous practice of the past. You should express your gratitude immediately.
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Do not view mountains from the scale of human thought.
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Mountains and rivers at this very moment are the actualization of the world of the ancient Buddhas. Each, abiding in its phenomenal expression, realizes completeness.
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IF YOU WOULD BE FREE OF GREED, FIRST YOU HAVE TO LEAVE EGOTISM BEHIND. THE BEST MENTAL EXERCISE FOR RELINQUISHING EGOTISM IS CONTEMPLATING IMPERMANENCE.
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A zen master's life is one continuous mistake.
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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.
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Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.
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In the stream, Rushing past To the dusty world, My fleeting form Casts no reflection.
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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.
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Meditation is not a way to enlightenment, Nor is it a method of achieving anything at all. It is peace itself. It is the actualization of wisdom, The ultimate truth of the oneness of all things.
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When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots, but just paint Spring. To paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots is to paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots - it is not yet painting Spring.
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When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.
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