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

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

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

The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.

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

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

You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.

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

Sankharas are the seeds of consciousness that manifest as sensations. By observing sensations equanimously, we stop creating new sankharas.

The defilements of the mind are temporary visitors. Pure awareness is your true home.

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

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

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

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

The way is basically perfect. It is not a matter of practice or enlightenment.

Just as the wise do not take a mirage to be water, nor an echo to be a voice, so the enlightened do not take the world to be real.

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

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

The more you understand, the more you love; the more you love, the more you understand.

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.

Because you are alive, everything is possible.

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

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

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

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

The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency, or change.

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

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

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

The lamp of wisdom burns constantly, illuminating the nature of mind.

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

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.

Enlightenment is not the end of change but the end of resistance to change.

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

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

Like a dream, like an illusion, like a city of gandharvas, that's how birth, and that's how living, that's how dying are taught to be.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

The present moment is the only moment available to us, and it is the door to all moments.

The mind that sees its own nature becomes free from all extremes.

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

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

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.

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

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 essence of the teaching is emptiness and compassion. Without emptiness, compassion can become attachment. Without compassion, emptiness can become cold and distant.

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

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

The Noble Eightfold Path is not a path of mere intellectual understanding but a path of practice, of inner transformation.

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

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

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

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

The experience of emptiness engenders compassion.

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.

In the moment of pure noting, there is no self - only the knowing and the known.

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

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.

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.

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

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.