Dogen Zenji Quotes

At a point in every person's life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world, not as we may want to see it or hope to see it, but as it is.

Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.

Truth is within ourselves.

I think that some people like to be someone other than themselves when acting, while others are most themselves. I fall into the second camp. For me, acting is a great exercise in getting to the truth about myself.

The work is flowing from an inner knowing of how things really are.

It is when I am working that the real me comes out - that is when I am the most real and honest.

If you cannot find the truth within yourself, where else do you expect to find it?

Unraveling external selves and coming home to our real identity is the true meaning of soul work.

We do not know it because we are fooling away our time with outward and perishing things, and are asleep in regard to that which is real within ourself.

To know what that true self is without social pressure is to know your true nature.

I must find a truth that is true for me.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

We have what we seek, it is there all the time, and if we give it time, it will make itself known to us.

The truth is that you shouldn't match your insides to other people's outsides. Life is an inside job, and we just have to do our best.

There's got to be a voice deep within you that is untouched by definitions. And it is there that you become divinely who you are.

The state of self-realization, as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been.

A true spiritual teacher does not have anything to teach in the conventional sense of the word, does not have anything to give or add to you, such as new information, beliefs, or rules of conduct. The only function of such a teacher is to help you remove that which separates you from the truth of who you already are and what you already know in the depth of your being

Truths are a result of knowing yourself.

You’re a wondering soul, looking for a peace that doesn’t exist. Lost you will be until you find the one inner truth. We can never hide from what we are. The only hope is to embrace it.’ (Old Seer)

If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.

What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.

What you are is a question only you can answer.

At some point, a flash of sustained clarity reveals the difference between what someone would have you believe is true, and what you know from the depths of your own heart to the peaks of your soul to be true. What happens after that is up to you.

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.