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

Love is the wish that others be happy, and compassion is the wish that they be free from suffering.

What we learn about the world is colored by the way we approach it.

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

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

In our struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess.

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.

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

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

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

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

If you want to know your past life, look at your present condition. If you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.

To live is enough.

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

The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.

Happiness is not about getting what you want, but wanting what you've got.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

The way is basically perfect. It is not a matter of practice or enlightenment.

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

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

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

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

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

Wisdom is not about accumulating knowledge, but about seeing through all knowledge.

True freedom is not the absence of commitment but the presence of choice.

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

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

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

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

Don't take life too seriously. No one gets out alive anyway.

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

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

The mind is the forerunner of all things. Our present life is the result of our past thoughts, and our future life will be the result of our present thoughts.

Because you are alive, everything is possible.

Life is available only in the present moment.

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.

The farther you enter into truth, the deeper it is.

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

The path to enlightenment is not a path at all. It is a realization that where you are is where you have always been.

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

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.

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

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

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

The path of insight is a path of discovery, not a path of creation. We are discovering what is already there.

The world is its own magic.

The law of nature is the law of cause and effect. As you sow, so shall you reap.

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

True happiness is born of letting go of what is unnecessary.

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.

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

True happiness is not about getting rid of all our problems, but about changing our relationship to them.

Karma is not fate but the law of moral causation, showing us that we are the architects of our own destiny.

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

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.