Yamada Koun Zenshin, or Koun Yamada, was a Japanese Buddhist who was the leader of the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen Buddhism, the Dharma heir of his teacher Yasutani Haku’un Ryoko.

Yamada Koun Quotes

1. “Every moment is the manifestation of the whole. Life itself is, therefore, nothing but the continuous moment of the whole, and everybody is living in the continuous moment of the whole.”
— Yamada Koun

2. “The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.”
— Yamada Koun

3. “Someone who wants to attain enlightenment must be brave. He must rush into the crowd of enemies with a dagger. In the practice of Zen, enemies are our delusive thoughts and passions.”
— Yamada Koun

4. “In the same way your life is the continuity of standing up, sitting down, laughing, sleeping, waking up, drinking, eating, and, of course, being born and dying. That is the continuity of the whole universe.”
— Yamada Koun

5. “The entrance into Zen is the grasping of one’s essential nature. It is impossible, however, to come to a clear understanding of our essential nature by any intellectual or philosophical method. It is accomplished only by the experience of self-realization through zazen.”
— Yamada Koun

6. “The purpose of Zen is the perfection of character.”
— Yamada Koun