True happiness is not found through the multiplication of desires but through their simplification.

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

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

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

The three characteristics - impermanence, suffering, and non-self - are not philosophical concepts but aspects of experience to be directly observed.

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

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

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

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

The secret of happiness is to want what you already have.

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

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

Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.

If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look into your present actions.

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

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

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.

The eye with which I see Buddha is the same eye with which Buddha sees me.

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

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

The essence of mind is empty like space; yet it contains all things, like a mirror.

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

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

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

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

The mind is intrinsically empty. It's empty of all that we perceive as being intrinsically "me" and "mine."

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

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

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

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 greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

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

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

The mind is the source of all happiness and the source of all suffering.

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.

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's teaching is a middle way between all extremes, between eternalism and annihilationism, between self-indulgence and self-torture.

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 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.

The past is for learning from, not for living in.

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

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

The nature of mind is not something we need to achieve - it's something we need to recognize.

The purpose of Buddhist practice is not to become a Buddhist but to awaken to the nature of reality.

The highest truth cannot be taught except through the conventional truth.

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

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

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

Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.

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.

All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddha.

When one sees with wisdom that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, one is liberated from suffering.

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

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

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth.