The sign of wisdom is constant joy.

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The nature of everything is illusory and ephemeral, those with dualistic perception regard suffering as happiness, like they who lick the honey from a razor's edge.

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

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

The time of the past becomes the present, the time of the present becomes the future, the time of the future becomes the present, and the time of the present becomes the past.

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves.

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.

There is no difference at all between samsara and nirvana. There is no difference at all between nirvana and samsara.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience, which in its very nature transcends linguistics.

Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.

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

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

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.

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

If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look into your present actions.

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

Neither from itself nor from another, nor from both, nor without a cause, does anything whatever, anywhere arise.

The root of suffering is attachment.

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.

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

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

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

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

Don't take life too seriously. No one gets out alive anyway.

When you understand that all phenomena are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self, attachment naturally falls away.

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

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

Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.

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

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

Suffering is not the end of the story; it is the middle of the story.

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.

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

In our struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess.

The way we look at the world is the way the world looks.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

The one who grasps at existence suffers in samsara, while the one who grasps at non-existence will find no liberation.