The water in the ocean can be rough or calm. It can be clear or murky. But the water itself doesn't mind.

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

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

The essence of all phenomena is empty and clear like space. The nature of mind is awareness-emptiness like the sun and sky.

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

Our true nature is like a diamond - pure, brilliant, and indestructible. No matter how much dirt covers it, its essential nature remains unchanged.

The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.

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.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

Craving and aversion are the roots of suffering. Observe them with equanimity.

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

When we know the truth, we become people who don't have to think much, we become people with wisdom.

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

The biggest prison is the one we build in our own mind.

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

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

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.

Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.

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

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

The dharma is not about collecting more beliefs but about becoming free from the power of belief itself.

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Just to be alive is enough.

Since all things are empty of inherent existence, anything is possible. If things had inherent existence, nothing would be possible.

Real happiness lies within. It cannot be found in external objects or achievements.

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?

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

To see the truth, do not be for or against. The struggle between for and against is the mind's worst disease.

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

When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth.

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

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

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.

Both formerly and now, it is only suffering that I describe, and the cessation of suffering.

The person who clings to nothing of the past, present and future, who has no attachment and no aversion, has no conceptual imprints.

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

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

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

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

Trees, mountains, and vines all exist in nature according to their own truth. They are born and die following their nature. They remain this way because that's what they are. They don't practice meditation or do anything special.

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

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

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

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

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

Those who cling to perceptions and views wander the world offending people.