All worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death.

Love is the wish that others be happy, and compassion is the wish that they be free from suffering.

The Four Noble Truths are not mere doctrinal propositions but a framework for understanding and transforming our lives.

Wisdom says we are nothing. Love says we are everything. Between these two our life flows.

The past is for learning from, not for living in.

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel.

The awareness that you are here, right now, is the ultimate fact.

Change is possible because there is nothing inherently permanent about our disturbing emotions.

The menu is not the meal.

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

The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life.

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.

If I had any position, I would thereby have a flaw. But since I have no position, I alone am without flaw.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

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

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

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

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

To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.

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

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

In the beginning, nothing comes, in the middle nothing stays, in the end nothing goes.

To live – is that not enough? To love – is that not everything?

The purpose of our lives is to be happy, and happiness is found in benefiting others.

Life is an art, and like perfect art it should be self-forgetting.

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

Although all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they function perfectly well.

The dharma is not about collecting more beliefs but about becoming free from the power of belief itself.

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

The spiritual journey begins with the recognition that beneath our surface happiness there lies a deep inner pain.

Past thoughts are traceless, clear, and empty. Future thoughts are unborn and fresh. The present moment abides naturally and unconstructed.

True happiness is born of letting go of what is unnecessary.

The Buddha's teaching is not a philosophy or a religion; it is a method of practice.

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

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

The deepest form of happiness comes from discovering the natural peace of our own awareness.

Every being has the potential of becoming a Buddha. Our true nature is Buddha nature.

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

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?

The ocean does not reject any water; therefore it is great. The mountain does not select its stones; therefore it is great.

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

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

Both formerly and now, it is only suffering that I describe, and the cessation of suffering.

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

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.

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

The goal of the Buddhist path is not to add something to our existence but to discover something that has been there all along.

The knowledge of dissolution comes when you see both the noting mind and noted object dissolving together.

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

The truth of suffering is not to be feared but to be understood through direct observation.

Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.

The true person is not anyone in particular. But like the deep blue color of the limitless sky, it is everyone, everywhere in the world.

The Noble Eightfold Path is not a path of mere intellectual understanding but a path of practice, of inner transformation.

The Buddha taught us to leave alone the things that don't lead to awakening.

The more we understand impermanence, the more we appreciate each moment of our lives.

Few among men are they who cross to the further shore. The others merely run up and down the bank on this side.

The path to liberation requires both understanding and practice, both pariyatti and patipatti.

The Buddha's path is not about becoming somebody different but about becoming more and more who you really are.

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

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.