Real peace comes from seeing things as they really are, not as we want them to be.

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

The defilements of the mind are temporary visitors. Pure awareness is your true home.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

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

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

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

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

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.

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

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.

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

Loving-kindness is not something we need to manufacture. It's a natural expression of our awakened nature.

Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher.

Those who understand interdependent origination understand suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

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

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

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

The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life.

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

There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way.

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

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

The mind is like water. When it's turbulent, it's difficult to see. When it's calm, everything becomes clear.

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

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

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

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

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

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

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

The path to liberation requires both individual effort and the support of the spiritual community.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead, it's about becoming more fully human.

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

Buddhas and ordinary beings are not two. Enlightenment and delusion are not different paths.

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

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

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

Happiness is not the pursuit of an endless succession of experiences but an attitude toward life.

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

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.

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

Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.

The root of suffering is attachment.

The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal.

When you are you, Zen is Zen. Big mind is just big mind.