When we understand others, we understand ourselves. When we love others, we love ourselves.

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

The Four Noble Truths are not merely theoretical propositions but a framework for understanding and transforming our experience.

Instead of having a deep understanding of the teaching, we need a strong confidence in our teaching, which says that originally we have Buddha nature.

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

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

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

The path of practice moves from faith through understanding to direct realization.

The Buddha taught us to leave alone the things that don't lead to awakening.

The path of awakening is not about becoming who you are. Rather it is about unbecoming who you are not.

The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.

Wisdom is not about accumulating knowledge, but about seeing through all knowledge.

The Dhamma is not a collection of doctrinal formulas but a path leading to direct insight into the nature of reality.

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

The truth of suffering is not to be feared but to be understood through direct observation.

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

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

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

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

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

Life is available only in the present moment.

The Buddha and all sentient beings are nothing but expressions of the one mind. There is nothing else.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The quality of every moment depends on the state of our minds.

For whom emptiness is possible, everything is possible. For whom emptiness is not possible, nothing is possible.

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.

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.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

Through continuous mindfulness practice, the true nature of physical and mental phenomena becomes clear.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

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.

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

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

Suffering comes from our resistance to what is. Peace comes from our acceptance of what is.

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

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

The practice of vipassana is the study of the self. When you study physical and mental phenomena, you are studying the truth about yourself.

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

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

Whatever is dependently co-arisen, that is explained to be emptiness. That, being a dependent designation, is itself the middle way.

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?

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

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

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

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

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.

Real happiness comes from having an unshakable connection to the deep wellspring of peace and happiness that is not dependent on external conditions.

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