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

To live is enough.

My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra. My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantabhadri. I belong to the caste of non-duality of these two.

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.

The farther you enter into truth, the deeper it is.

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

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

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

Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.

The experience of emptiness engenders compassion.

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

The difference between buddhas and sentient beings is that buddhas recognize their nature while sentient beings fail to recognize it.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

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

The nature of mind is the unity of awareness and emptiness.

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

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

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?

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

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

True happiness is born of letting go of what is unnecessary.

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.

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

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

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

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

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

The more we understand impermanence, the more we understand that we can't hold on to anything.

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

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

To live fully is to let go and die with each step.

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

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

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

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

The more you understand impermanence, the more you appreciate every moment.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

People who study a lot but don't practice are like a ladle in a soup pot. It's in the soup every day, but it doesn't know the taste of the soup.

Enlightenment is not about becoming something special, but about realizing what we already are.

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

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

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

Without darkness, there is no light. Without the path, there is no arrival.

Life is available only in the present moment.

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

All that appears and exists, all of samsara and nirvana, has one ground, two paths, and two results. This is the magical display of awareness and unawareness.

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

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.

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

The mind is the source of all happiness and the source of all suffering.

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

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

Life is like a cup of tea. It's all in how you make it.

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

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