Each Moment Is the Universe Quotes

“The moment that you are living right now is a very important opportunity to make your life vividly alive.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“before your mind starts to work and you want to run away, accept every moment as an opportunity presented to you to practice facing reality as it really is.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“Life and death occur in a moment. In other words, life and death are nothing but moment. You don’t believe that your life is a moment, because in everyday life you always have lots of choices. But if you see death, you taste it immediately. Moment and you come together, creating the momentum energy of time, and you and death become one; you have no choice.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“Detachment doesn’t mean you should ignore form; it means you have to attach to form through and through. A form may bother you, but you need form because you love truth, you love peace, you love life itself.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“Keep your mouth shut and look directly at impermanence!”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“If you don’t understand, please keep your mouth shut and just live with all sentient beings in peace and harmony beyond your intellectual speculation. It’s not necessary to think how much that helps people or how many people it helps. All you have to do is be peaceful with people right now, right here, day by day.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“When you touch this basic nature of human life you feel relief. This is your final abode, your terminal station. If you take the train of human life, finally you arrive at the terminal station. It seems to be a dead end, but it is not the usual dead end. When you reach that terminal station it is the end, but it is also the beginning. At that dead end something happens. A new life comes up. From this basic place you can go anywhere—to the north, to the west, to the south, to the east—everywhere. Your life is open in all directions.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“If you try to examine your life analytically, asking yourself who you are, finally you will realize that there is something you cannot reach. You don’t know what it is, but you feel the presence of something you want to connect with. This is sometimes called the absolute. Buddha and Dogen Zenji say true self. Christians say God.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“Zazen doesn’t give you something—it’s the complete opposite!”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“if you want to make a vivid statement about yourself, say you are kiya—arising only!”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“Everydayness perfumes the depth of life, the huge ocean where all are interconnected, and makes your life mature. Then a new life arises from the depth and appears on the surface. So, by taking care of everydayness, you don’t make just the surface mature; you also make the depth of your life mature.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“So we have to find the realm of buddhas within the realm of demons. In other words, in the realm of pain and suffering, we have to find the realm of peace and harmony. This is religious practice.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“We drank a cup of tea and ate a little umeboshi cake. I still remember the nice taste of that little cake in the shape of the sour umeboshi plum. Nothing special happened—we just sat there, eating that cake—but I felt really comfortable. That memory is very clear for me. Spending the day with my mother, just being present with her. No disturbance, no brothers there, just my mother and I, just living.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“All you have to do is take care of your posture and breathing with a kind, considerate, and thoughtful spirit.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“no matter how long you try to follow a meaningful purpose in life, impermanence always cuts it off.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“Transiency is the naked nature of time.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“You are connected with all beings in time, which permeates into every inch of the cosmic universe, and space, where everyone and everything exists together in peace and harmony.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“first, totally accept your life and what you did in the past. Then, based on the past, make a choice about what to do in the present, and by your decision you can create a new life in the future. That is the real meaning of freedom.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“In the conscious world of suffering your body may hurt or your mind may be uncomfortable, so you want to get something pleasant or escape from something unpleasant. You may find temporary relief from the transient aspect of life, but your needs and desires can never be satisfied for long because your life is based on impermanence. Your body and mind, your needs and desires, are always changing, so there is nothing to attach to, nothing solid for you to hang on to, and nothing that can give you permanent satisfaction.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“Change is the basis of human life, so don’t attach yourself to birth or death, continuation or discontinuation. Just live right in the middle of the flow of change, where there is nothing to hold on to. How do you do this? Just be present and devote yourself to doing something. This is the simple practice of Zen.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“But then people say, “Let’s get that miracle!” and it makes people crazy. We grope for something, something that makes us feel good and satisfied, putting knowledge into our heads, emphasizing miracles, technique, and power. But we don’t pay attention to the basic activity that is the source of those things. We can experience miracles, but a miracle is just part of impermanence. Sometimes a miracle is good, but sometimes a miracle is not so good. Zen Buddhism doesn’t emphasize miracles. We don’t pay attention to them. We just come back to the unknown time and space of this very moment, the source of miracles, in every moment of every day. Then, from a miracle, comes a very stable way of life.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“Actualization is not just the manifestation of your individual experience of the truth; it is your life interconnected with a tree’s life, a bird’s life, water’s life, spring’s life, autumn’s life, and the life of the whole universe.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“So I stayed with the old priest who was my teacher, but lots of unanswered questions always came up. Then I thought, “Why don’t you teach me anything?” But my teacher didn’t care. He just lived. He just let me be alive every day.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“It is difficult to receive and accept oneness because human speculation doesn’t catch it. But if you practice with full devotion, finally you will come to the final goal—silence. When you touch the core of existence and see the fundamental truth, there is nothing to say; you are just present in silence. This silence really makes your life alive. Then, even though you don’t say anything, your silence has lots of words, demonstrating the truth in a physical and mental way, which can be seen by others. This is Buddha’s teaching appearing through the form of a person who sees into the pure and clear depth of human existence.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time

“Be present, from moment to moment, right in the middle of the real stream of time. That gives you spiritual security.”
― Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time