“We stop the one who can't cease from seeking things outside, and practice with our bodies with a posture that seeks absolutely nothing. This is zazen.”
"Zenshu," Collected Works, vol. 15 (Tokyo: Daihorinkaku, 1966), p. 336
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Kodo Sawaki 9
Japanese zen Buddhist monk 1880–1965Related quotes

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 18

“Everywhere we seek the Absolute, and always we find only things.”
Fragment No. 1; Variant: We seek the absolute everywhere and only ever find things.
Blüthenstaub (1798)

“Ne te quaesiveris extra." (Do not seek for things outside of yourself)”
Source: Self-Reliance and Other Essays

“We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us.”
Misattributed
Source: Frequently quoted on social media, but appears to be a misquote of Thomas Browne's "We carry within us the wonders we seek without us: there is all Africa and her prodigies in us" in Religio Medici (1643) pt. 1, sect. 15.

Part ii, canto ii.
Lucile (1860)

Lecture in Los Altos, CA (1 September 1967)
Context: So it is not a matter of whether it is possible to attain Buddhahood, or if it is possible to make a tile a jewel. But just to work, just to live in this world with this understanding is the most important point, and that is our practice. That is true zazen.