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.

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

The contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience, which in its very nature transcends linguistics.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Peace is not found by changing the world, but by changing your attitude to the world.

By understanding emptiness, one understands all phenomena. Without understanding emptiness, one understands nothing.

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

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.

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

The mind is the source of all happiness and the source of all suffering.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

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

Loving-kindness is not something we need to manufacture. It's a natural expression of our awakened nature.

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

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

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

There is no difference at all between samsara and nirvana. There is no difference at all between nirvana and samsara.

The person who clings to nothing of the past, present and future, who has no attachment and no aversion, has no conceptual imprints.

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

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

Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.

The mind is like water. When it's turbulent, it's difficult to see. When it's calm, everything becomes clear.

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

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.

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

Right View is not just a matter of intellectual understanding but of seeing things as they really are.

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

Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead, it's about becoming more fully human.

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

The Buddha's teaching challenges us to master the art of living, to live in a way that leads to the extinction of suffering.

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

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

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.

Whatever is dependently co-arisen, that is explained to be emptiness. That, being a dependent designation, is itself the middle way.

The essence of all phenomena is empty and clear like space. The nature of mind is awareness-emptiness like the sun and sky.

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

The only things that are truly mine are my actions and their results.

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

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

The defilements of the mind are temporary visitors. Pure awareness is your true home.

The Buddha and all sentient beings are nothing but expressions of the one mind. There is nothing else.

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

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.

True freedom is a freedom from the tyranny of our own thoughts and afflictive emotions.

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

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

In Zen there must be satori; there must be a general mental upheaval which destroys the old accumulations of intellection and lays down the foundation for a new life.

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

Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher.

The path of awakening is not about becoming who you are. Rather it is about unbecoming who you are not.

The nature of the mind is like the sky, and our thoughts, emotions, and experiences are like clouds passing through it.

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

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

Don't be a bodhisatta; don't be an arahant; don't be anything at all. Being something makes you suffer.

If you see certainty in that which is uncertain, you are bound to suffer.

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

The lamp of wisdom burns constantly, illuminating the nature of mind.

Recognize the emptiness of all phenomena, but do not become attached to emptiness itself.

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