The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.

The mind that notes and the object that is noted are both impermanent. Understanding this leads to liberation.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

All experiences are preceded by mind, having mind as their master, created by mind.

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

The ultimate purpose of Buddhism is to serve and benefit humanity.

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

The difference between buddhas and sentient beings is that buddhas recognize their nature while sentient beings fail to recognize it.

Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.

Only one book is worth reading: the heart.

The mind is intrinsically empty. It's empty of all that we perceive as being intrinsically "me" and "mine."

The path of practice moves from faith through understanding to direct realization.

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they have contracted themselves into a single moment of the present where life quivers in its true sense.

The realization of impermanence leads not to despair but to a deeper appreciation of the preciousness of each moment.

You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.

When mindfulness becomes continuous, the distinction between the observer and the observed begins to break down.

Appearances are mind, mind itself is emptiness, emptiness itself is spontaneous presence.

The quality of every moment depends on the state of our minds.

The essence of the spiritual journey is the uncovering of what is always already present.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

Sankharas are the seeds of consciousness that manifest as sensations. By observing sensations equanimously, we stop creating new sankharas.

The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency, or change.

The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment.

The water in the ocean can be rough or calm. It can be clear or murky. But the water itself doesn't mind.

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

Emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is the space of possibility.

My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra. My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantabhadri. I belong to the caste of non-duality of these two.

If you want to know your past life, look at your present condition. If you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.

The essence of Buddhism is not a belief system but a systematic investigation of our experience.

Karma is not fate but the law of moral causation, showing us that we are the architects of our own destiny.

Just as the great ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so also this teaching and discipline has one taste, the taste of liberation.

To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

Those who grasp at things as truly existent are like someone trying to catch the reflection of the moon in water.

The biggest prison is the one we build in our own mind.

The way we look at the world is the way the world looks.

Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.

Each moment of clear seeing is a moment of freedom from the illusion of permanence, satisfaction, and self.

The path of awakening is not about becoming who we think we should be, but about unbecoming who we are not.

You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.

Awareness is the basis, or what you might call the "support," of the mind. It is steady and unchanging, like the pole to which the flag of ordinary consciousness is attached.

Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: you won't be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.

Our true nature is like a diamond - pure, brilliant, and indestructible. No matter how much dirt covers it, its essential nature remains unchanged.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

Because you are alive, everything is possible.

The root of suffering is not in the world outside us but in our own minds.

Like a dream, like an illusion, like a city of gandharvas, that's how birth, and that's how living, that's how dying are taught to be.

Understanding means throwing away your knowledge.

The more you understand, the more you love; the more you love, the more you understand.

The five aggregates are not a theoretical model but a description of lived experience to be investigated through mindfulness.

True freedom is not the absence of commitment but the presence of choice.

The nature of everything is illusory and ephemeral, those with dualistic perception regard suffering as happiness, like they who lick the honey from a razor's edge.

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

Wisdom is not about accumulating knowledge, but about seeing through all knowledge.

External phenomena are like a dream, whatever appears is not real. Recognize the nature of dream-like phenomena to be dream-like.

When you realize the emptiness of all phenomena, compassion will arise in your heart for all sentient beings who do not understand this truth.

Neither from itself nor from another, nor from both, nor without a cause, does anything whatever, anywhere arise.

Happiness is not the pursuit of an endless succession of experiences but an attitude toward life.

Those who cling to perceptions and views wander the world offending people.