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

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

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.

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.

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.

When you realize the emptiness of all phenomena, compassion will arise in your heart for all sentient beings who do not understand this truth.

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

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

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

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

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.

True freedom is a freedom from the tyranny of our own thoughts and afflictive emotions.

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.

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

When concentration is developed, wisdom arises. When wisdom arises, one becomes disenchanted with the five aggregates.

The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

The ultimate purpose of Buddhism is to serve and benefit humanity.

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

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

The nature of mind is like a mirror. It is not affected by whatever appears in it, yet it never fails to reflect everything perfectly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Craving and aversion are the roots of suffering. Observe them with equanimity.

When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.

The nature of life is change. The nature of change is painful. The nature of pain is temporary.

The contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience, which in its very nature transcends linguistics.

The lamp of wisdom burns constantly, illuminating the nature of mind.

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

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

The more we understand impermanence, the more we appreciate each moment of our lives.

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.

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

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

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?

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

Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.

Wisdom says we are nothing. Love says we are everything. Between these two our life flows.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

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 secret of happiness is to want what you already have.

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

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

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

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