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

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

Real freedom is not about controlling our experience, but about being free within our experience.

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.

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

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.

The practice of vipassana is the study of the self. When you study physical and mental phenomena, you are studying the truth about yourself.

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

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

Trees, mountains, and vines all exist in nature according to their own truth. They are born and die following their nature. They remain this way because that's what they are. They don't practice meditation or do anything special.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

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

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

The deepest happiness comes from having an enduring sense of purpose, one that gives our lives meaning beyond the endless pursuit of pleasure and success.

The more we understand impermanence, the more we understand that we can't hold on to anything.

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

The Buddha's teaching is not about belief but about investigation, not about accepting but about examining.

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

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

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

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

Only one book is worth reading: the heart.

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.

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.

Life is available only in the present moment.

The experience of emptiness engenders compassion.

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

Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.

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

Whatever precious jewel there is in the heavenly worlds, there is nothing comparable to one who is awakened.

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

Impermanence, suffering, and non-self are not philosophical concepts but realities to be directly perceived through mindfulness practice.

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

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

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

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

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

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