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

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

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

Every being has the potential of becoming a Buddha. Our true nature is Buddha nature.

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

The past is just a memory. The future is just a dream. Be here now.

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

Because you are alive, everything is possible.

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

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

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

The ocean does not reject any water; therefore it is great. The mountain does not select its stones; therefore it is great.

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

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

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

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

The ultimate source of happiness is not money and power, but warm-heartedness.

To live is enough.

Appearances are mind, mind itself is emptiness, emptiness itself is spontaneous presence.

This very body is the Buddha. And this very earth the lotus paradise.

Without darkness, there is no light. Without the path, there is no arrival.

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure.

Your own treasure house contains everything you need; why search outside?

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

The key to the Buddha's teaching is not grasping, not trying to hold onto things that are essentially impermanent and unstable.

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

All that appears and exists, all of samsara and nirvana, has one ground, two paths, and two results. This is the magical display of awareness and unawareness.

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

By understanding emptiness, one understands all phenomena. Without understanding emptiness, one understands nothing.

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

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

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

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

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

The cultivation of loving-kindness is the thread that runs through all Buddhist teachings.

In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they have contracted themselves into a single moment of the present where life quivers in its true sense.

Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.

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

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

Those who grasp at things as truly existent are like someone trying to catch the reflection of the moon in water.

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

Recognize the emptiness of all phenomena, but do not become attached to emptiness itself.

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

Don't try to push away the darkness. Just light a lamp. The darkness will disappear by itself.

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.

The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.

Although all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they function perfectly well.

Emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is the space of possibility.

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

True peace is found not in the absence of experience but in the clear seeing of all experience.

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

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.

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

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