The one who grasps at existence suffers in samsara, while the one who grasps at non-existence will find no liberation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life.

Change is the nature of every phenomenon. Accept this truth and you will live a happy life.

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

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

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

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

True peace is found not in the absence of experience but in the clear seeing of all experience.

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

To live is enough.

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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.

Neither from itself nor from another, nor from both, nor without a cause, does anything whatever, anywhere arise.

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

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 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.

Life is like a cup of tea. It's all in how you make it.

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

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

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

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

People who study a lot but don't practice are like a ladle in a soup pot. It's in the soup every day, but it doesn't know the taste of the soup.

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

Dependent origination is not a theory about the origin of the world but a teaching that shows how suffering originates in dependence on our own mental processes.

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

Buddhas and ordinary beings are not two. Enlightenment and delusion are not different paths.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

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.

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.

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

To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.

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

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.

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

Through continuous mindfulness practice, the true nature of physical and mental phenomena becomes clear.

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

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

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

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.