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

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.

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

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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.

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.

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.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

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

Happiness is found in the simplest of things. It is not in the things you own, but in the love you share.

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

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech.

Past thoughts are traceless, clear, and empty. Future thoughts are unborn and fresh. The present moment abides naturally and unconstructed.

The more you understand, the more you love; the more you love, the more you understand.

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

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

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

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 heart of the path is quite simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are.

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

The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.

The deepest form of happiness comes from discovering the natural peace of our own awareness.

The root of all suffering is ignorance. The antidote to ignorance is wisdom that realizes emptiness.

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.

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

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

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

All experiences are preceded by mind, having mind as their master, created by mind.

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.

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

The goal of the Buddhist path is not to add something to our existence but to discover something that has been there all along.

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

Everybody has the light of Buddha within, but they don't look for it.

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

Wisdom is not something we have to strive to acquire. Rather, wisdom arises naturally as we open our hearts to the truth of what is.

When you recognize that pain and suffering are impermanent, you become free.

Awareness is always with us. We don't need to create it or achieve it - we just need to recognize what's already there.

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

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.

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

Right View is not just a matter of intellectual understanding but of seeing things as they really are.

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

Don't be a bodhisatta; don't be an arahant; don't be anything at all. Being something makes you suffer.

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

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

The spiritual journey is not about heaven and finally getting to a place that's really swell.

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

The more you understand impermanence, the more you appreciate every moment.

The dharma wheel turns from the beginning. There is neither excess nor deficiency. The whole universe is moistened with nectar, and the truth is ready to harvest.

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

The Four Noble Truths are not mere doctrinal propositions but a framework for understanding and transforming our lives.

The Buddha's teaching is not about belief but about investigation, not about accepting but about examining.

We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.