When the old plum tree suddenly blooms, the world of blossoming flowers arises. At the moment when the world of blossoming flowers arises, spring arrives. There is a single blossom that opens five petals. At this moment of a single blossom, there are three, four, and five blossoms, hundreds, thousands, myriads, billions of blossoms – countless blossoms.

Dogen Zenji

from the book The Essential Dogen: Writings of the Great Zen Master

translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi


Read a random quote or see all quotes by Dogen Zenji.

Further quotes from the book The Essential Dogen:

• Enlightenment poem
• What is sitting
• Undivided activity
• Beneficial action is an act of oneness
• Since this word is already expounded