The path to liberation requires both individual effort and the support of the spiritual community.

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

Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.

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

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

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

All experiences are preceded by mind, having mind as their master, created by mind.

The knowledge of dissolution comes when you see both the noting mind and noted object dissolving together.

The dharma wheel turns from the beginning. There is neither excess nor deficiency. The whole universe is moistened with nectar, and the truth is ready to harvest.

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

The purpose of our lives is to be happy, and happiness is found in benefiting others.

The purpose of meditation is to gain right understanding of the true nature of mental and physical phenomena.

The five aggregates are not a theoretical model but a description of lived experience to be investigated through mindfulness.

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

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

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

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

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

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

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

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

The experience of emptiness engenders compassion.

What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

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

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.

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

True freedom is not the absence of commitment but the presence of choice.

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

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.

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

Because you are alive, everything is possible.

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

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

The most important factor in achieving happiness is the mind. Happiness and suffering are mental states and therefore depend on the mind.

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.

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

Birth and death are neither two things nor one thing. Life is not an appearance, death is not a disappearance.

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

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

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

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

Those who understand interdependent origination understand suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

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

Buddhas and ordinary beings are not two. Enlightenment and delusion are not different paths.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

The goal of the Buddhist path is not to add something to our existence but to discover something that has been there all along.

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

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

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

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