When we understand others, we understand ourselves. When we love others, we love ourselves.

The more we understand the nature of our mind, the more we understand the nature of our world.

When we know the truth, we become people who don't have to think much, we become people with wisdom.

If you want to know the past, look at the present. If you want to know the future, look at the present.

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

As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

The present moment is the only moment available to us, and it is the door to all moments.

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

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

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

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

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

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

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

The true person is not anyone in particular. But like the deep blue color of the limitless sky, it is everyone, everywhere in the world.

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

Nothing is permanent. Everything is subject to change. Being is always becoming.

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

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

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

Only one book is worth reading: the heart.

The Buddha's teachings are not a religion, but a science of mind.

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

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.

Instead of having a deep understanding of the teaching, we need a strong confidence in our teaching, which says that originally we have Buddha nature.

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.

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

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.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

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

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

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

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

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

You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.

When you understand that all phenomena are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self, attachment naturally falls away.

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

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

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

The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment.

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

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

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

Birth and death are neither two things nor one thing. Life is not an appearance, death is not a disappearance.

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

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.

Enlightenment is not about becoming something special, but about realizing what we already are.

What Zen wants us to do is to acquire an entirely new point of view whereby to look into the mysteries of life and the secrets of nature.

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

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

If I had any position, I would thereby have a flaw. But since I have no position, I alone am without flaw.

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 world is its own magic.

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.

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

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

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

When mindfulness becomes continuous, the distinction between the observer and the observed begins to break down.