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

Wisdom is not something we have to strive to acquire. Rather, wisdom arises naturally as we open our hearts to the truth of what is.

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

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

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

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

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

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

The nature of everything is empty and clear, and the mind is beyond both existence and nonexistence.

The dharma wheel turns from the beginning. There is neither excess nor deficiency. The whole universe is moistened with nectar, and the truth is ready to harvest.

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

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

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

Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.

The essence of mind is empty like space; yet it contains all things, like a mirror.

The Buddha taught that wealth does not bring happiness and security. The pursuit of wealth is a matter of living in balance.

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

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.

All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddha.

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

Those who understand interdependent origination understand suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.

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 goal of Buddhist practice is not to escape from the world but to transform our relationship with it.

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

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

The path to liberation requires both individual effort and the support of the spiritual community.

To live is enough.

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

When you are you, Zen is Zen. Big mind is just big mind.

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.

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

Suffering is not the end of the story; it is the middle of the story.

The past is just a memory. The future is just a dream. Be here now.

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

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

The essence of the teaching is emptiness and compassion. Without emptiness, compassion can become attachment. Without compassion, emptiness can become cold and distant.

The spiritual journey is not about heaven and finally getting to a place that's really swell.

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

Enlightenment is not the end of change but the end of resistance to change.

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

The path is not about moving from one place to another. It's about recognizing where we already are.

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

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

Altruism is not a luxury, it is a necessity for the survival of humanity.

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

This very body is the Buddha. And this very earth the lotus paradise.

The mind of the past is ungraspable; the mind of the future is ungraspable; the mind of the present is ungraspable.

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves.

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.

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 ultimate source of happiness is not money and power, but warm-heartedness.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

The purpose of Buddhist practice is not to become a Buddhist but to awaken to the nature of reality.

The practice of ethics is not about following rules but about developing inner purity and freedom.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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