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

The teaching of the Buddha is based on two truths: conventional truth and ultimate truth. Without understanding the relationship between these two, the deeper meaning of the Buddha's teaching cannot be understood.

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.

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

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.

Peace is not found by changing the world, but by changing your attitude to the world.

The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech.

External phenomena are like a dream, whatever appears is not real. Recognize the nature of dream-like phenomena to be dream-like.

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.

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

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

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

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

Few among men are they who cross to the further shore. The others merely run up and down the bank on this side.

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

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

The deepest form of happiness comes from discovering the natural peace of our own awareness.

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.

The victorious ones have said that emptiness is the relinquishing of all views. Those who are possessed of the view of emptiness are said to be incurable.

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

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

If you see certainty in that which is uncertain, you are bound to suffer.

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

The nature of the mind is like the sky, and our thoughts, emotions, and experiences are like clouds passing through it.

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

Don't be a bodhisatta; don't be an arahant; don't be anything at all. Being something makes you suffer.

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

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

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

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.

The six realms of existence are like a dream, why build a prison for yourself?

If I had any position, I would thereby have a flaw. But since I have no position, I alone am without flaw.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

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.

We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

Awareness is the basis, or what you might call the "support," of the mind. It is steady and unchanging, like the pole to which the flag of ordinary consciousness is attached.

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

The secret of happiness lies not in getting what we want, but in learning to want what we already have.

The deepest happiness comes from having an enduring sense of purpose, one that gives our lives meaning beyond the endless pursuit of pleasure and success.

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

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

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

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

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

Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.

True happiness is not about getting rid of all our problems, but about changing our relationship to them.