Personal experience is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience.

The root of all mind is your own present pure awareness. Rest in that essence without seeking elsewhere.

Mindfulness is not just bare attention but wise attention that leads to understanding and insight.

Buddhist practice is not to eliminate life's problems but to grow with them patiently and with compassion.

We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

In the gap between thoughts, nonconceptual wisdom shines continuously.

Knowledge must be stabilized by meditation. Without meditation, knowledge is like a child in battle.

Happiness is not about getting what you want, but wanting what you've got.

This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

Those who know emptiness, know impermanence. Those who know impermanence, know non-self. Those who know non-self, know peace.

Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals.

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

Real happiness comes from having an unshakable connection to the deep wellspring of peace and happiness that is not dependent on external conditions.

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring wood: all these I do in Zen.

Do not mistake understanding for realization, and do not mistake realization for liberation.

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.

Every moment of mindfulness is a step on the path to liberation. Each step is valuable, no matter how small.

External seeking only leads to exhaustion. When you imitate others, you lose your own authenticity.

The view is like a lion - it cannot be led around by anything else. Meditation is like an eagle - it cannot be distracted by anything else. Action is like a madman - it is free from accepting and rejecting.

Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.

The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment.

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

True happiness is not found through the multiplication of desires but through their simplification.

Craving and aversion are the roots of suffering. Observe them with equanimity.

Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.

Mindfulness is the key to the present moment. Without it we cannot see the world clearly, and we cannot make the wisest choices in our lives.

Wisdom and compassion must be developed equally and harmoniously.

The nature of mind is not something we need to achieve - it's something we need to recognize.

In meditation, we're not trying to get rid of thoughts but to recognize their true nature.

Time passes unhindered. When we make ourselves better, we make the world better.

When you note pain, you are not trying to make it go away. You are trying to understand its true nature.

Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.