Kosho Uchiyama Quotes & Sayings

The power of life that is buried deep inside you will never rise up until you have become convinced that you're walking the only path open for you. — Kosho Uchiyama

Everything you encounter is your life. — Kosho Uchiyama

Our life is whatever we are encountering right now, and our practice is shikantaza, which is literally 'just sitting.' More broadly it means to put our energy into settling everything in our world here and now, where we really live. — Kosho Uchiyama

Your true self is beyond either relying on others or avoiding them in order to know who you are. — Kosho Uchiyama

The first undeniable reality is that every living thing dies, and the second undeniable reality is that we suffer throughout our lives because we don't understand death. The truth derived from these two points is the importance of clarifying the matter of birth and death. The third undeniable reality is that all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in my head simply arise haphazardly, by chance. And the conclusion we can derive from that is not to hold on to all that comes up in our head. That is what we are doing when we sit zazen. — Kosho Uchiyama

When we let go of all our notions about things, everything becomes really true. — Kosho Uchiyama

Whatever way you put it, I am here only because my world is here. When I took my first breath, my world was born with me. When I die, my world dies with me. In other words, I wasn't born into a world that was already here before me, nor do I live simply as one individual among millions of other individuals, nor do I leave everything behind to live on after me. People live thinking of themselves as members of a group or society. However, this isn't really true. Actually, I bring my own world into existence, live it out, and take it with me when I die. — Kosho Uchiyama

In other words, without being tossed about by personal feelings and ideas, just returning to the life of my true self, without envying or being arrogant toward those around me, neither being self-deprecating nor competing with others, yet on the other hand not falling into the trap of laziness, negligence, or carelessness - just manifesting that life of my self with all the vigor I have - here is where the glory of life comes forth and where the light of buddha shines.53 Religious light shines where we manifest our own life. — Kosho Uchiyama