Bankei Yotaku Quotes
Bankei Yotaku was a Japanese Rinzai Zen master of the Edo period, abbot of the Ryomon-ji and the Korin-ji, and one of the most original Zen teachers of seventeenth-century Japan. Famed for the simplicity and accessibility of his sermons, which he delivered in colloquial Japanese to mixed audiences of monks and lay people, he taught the doctrine of the Unborn Buddha-mind, the original mind that has never been born and so can never die, and which everyone already possesses if only they would recognize it. The quotes below are attributed to Bankei Yotaku, organized by topic.
Bankei Yotaku on Mind
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Attributed to Bankei Yotaku:
“What is unborn cannot die; this is the Buddha-mind that you already are.”
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Attributed to Bankei Yotaku:
“Anger arises and you take it for yourself; let it pass, and you remain.”
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Attributed to Bankei Yotaku:
“The Unborn settles every problem; what cannot be settled by the Unborn was no problem at all.”
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Attributed to Bankei Yotaku:
“Do not seek the Buddha outside; the seeking itself is the Buddha-mind.”
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Attributed to Bankei Yotaku:
“Zen is not the special preserve of monks; it belongs to anyone who knows their own mind.”