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.

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

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

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

To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

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

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

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

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

If you want to know the past, look at the present. If you want to know the future, look at the present.

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

Although all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they function perfectly well.

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

Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: you won't be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.

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

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

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

Each moment of clear seeing is a moment of freedom from the illusion of permanence, satisfaction, and self.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

The Buddha's teaching is not a philosophical system but a practical guide to living.

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

Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.

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.

In the beginning, nothing comes, in the middle nothing stays, in the end nothing goes.

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

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

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

The essence of mind is empty like space; yet it contains all things, like a mirror.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The truth of suffering is not to be feared but to be understood through direct observation.

Wisdom arises when you see the true characteristics of phenomena through direct experience.

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

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

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.

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

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

Suffering comes from our resistance to what is. Peace comes from our acceptance of what is.

The Buddha's path is not about becoming somebody different but about becoming more and more who you really are.

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

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

To see the truth, do not be for or against. The struggle between for and against is the mind's worst disease.

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 Four Noble Truths are not mere doctrinal propositions but a framework for understanding and transforming our lives.

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

The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life.

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

The heart of the path is quite simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are.

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 only things that are truly mine are my actions and their results.

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