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

To live fully is to let go and die with each step.

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

Ethical conduct is not a constraint upon our freedom but a condition of our freedom.

Suffering comes from our resistance to what is. Peace comes from our acceptance of what is.

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

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

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

When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

The path of practice requires both faith and wisdom, both devotion and understanding.

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

Only one book is worth reading: the heart.

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

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

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

All that appears and exists, all of samsara and nirvana, has one ground, two paths, and two results. This is the magical display of awareness and unawareness.

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth.

The highest truth cannot be taught except through the conventional truth.

Since all things are empty of inherent existence, anything is possible. If things had inherent existence, nothing would be possible.

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

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

Don't try to push away the darkness. Just light a lamp. The darkness will disappear by itself.

The victorious ones have said that emptiness is the relinquishing of all views. Those who are possessed of the view of emptiness are said to be incurable.

The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal.

When you recognize that pain and suffering are impermanent, you become free.

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

Real happiness comes from having an unshakable connection to the deep wellspring of peace and happiness that is not dependent on external conditions.

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.

The Buddha's teaching is not a philosophical system but a practical guide to living.

The Buddha's teaching is a teaching of self-reliance, of being one's own master, one's own refuge.

The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.

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

Awareness is always with us. We don't need to create it or achieve it - we just need to recognize what's already there.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.

The purpose of life is to be happy, to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is not to be well known, cited, or powerful.

The key to the Buddha's teaching is not grasping, not trying to hold onto things that are essentially impermanent and unstable.

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

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

Real peace comes from seeing things as they really are, not as we want them to be.

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

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

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.

Everybody has the light of Buddha within, but they don't look for it.

Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.

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.

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.

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

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

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

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 time of the past becomes the present, the time of the present becomes the future, the time of the future becomes the present, and the time of the present becomes the past.

The ultimate revolution is the spiritual revolution, where we learn to see reality as it truly is.

Our basic nature is pure awareness that simply cognizes experience. Everything else is temporary and adventitious.

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

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma.