Just as the wise do not take a mirage to be water, nor an echo to be a voice, so the enlightened do not take the world to be real.

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

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

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

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

The Buddha's teaching is a middle way between all extremes, between eternalism and annihilationism, between self-indulgence and self-torture.

Enlightenment is the realization that we were never really separate from one another or from all of life.

The path to liberation is through understanding the true nature of mind and matter through direct observation.

The experience of emptiness engenders compassion.

The heart of the path is quite simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are.

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.

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

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.

Zen is not necessarily against words, but it is well aware of their limitations.

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.

Don't take life too seriously. No one gets out alive anyway.

The practice of Buddhism is fundamentally a practice of expanding our happiness and diminishing our suffering.

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

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

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

The law of nature is the law of cause and effect. As you sow, so shall you reap.

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

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

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

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 first noble truth of the Buddha is that life contains suffering. The second noble truth is that the cause of suffering is craving.

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

The nature of mind is the unity of awareness and emptiness.

The Buddha's teachings are not a religion, but a science of mind.

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.

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

The path to enlightenment is not a path at all. It is a realization that where you are is where you have always been.

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

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

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

The cultivation of loving-kindness is the thread that runs through all Buddhist teachings.

The Four Noble Truths are not merely theoretical propositions but a framework for understanding and transforming our experience.

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

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

The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

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

The mind that sees its own nature becomes free from all extremes.

When you understand that all phenomena are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self, attachment naturally falls away.

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

Intrinsically all living beings are Buddhas, just as ice and water are of the same substance.

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

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

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

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.

The teaching of the Buddha is based on two truths: conventional truth and ultimate truth. Without understanding the relationship between these two, the deeper meaning of the Buddha's teaching cannot be understood.

To see the truth, do not be for or against. The struggle between for and against is the mind's worst disease.

The purpose of meditation is to gain right understanding of the true nature of mental and physical phenomena.

The nature of all things is like a magical illusion, a mirage, a dream, a reflection of the moon in water.

What is evil? Killing is evil, lying is evil, slandering is evil, abuse is evil, gossip is evil, envy is evil, hatred is evil, to cling to false doctrine is evil; all these things are evil. And what is the root of evil? Desire is the root of evil, illusion is the root of evil.

In the moment of pure noting, there is no self - only the knowing and the known.

The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.