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

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

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

Change is the nature of every phenomenon. Accept this truth and you will live a happy life.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

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

Through continuous mindfulness practice, the true nature of physical and mental phenomena becomes clear.

Real freedom is not about controlling our experience, but about being free within our experience.

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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

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

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 path is not about moving from one place to another. It's about recognizing where we already are.

This very body is the Buddha. And this very earth the lotus paradise.

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

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

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

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.

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.

The mind is like water. When it's turbulent, it's difficult to see. When it's calm, everything becomes clear.

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

When you recognize that pain and suffering are impermanent, you become free.

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

The mind that notes and the object that is noted are both impermanent. Understanding this leads to liberation.

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

Appearances are mind, mind itself is emptiness, emptiness itself is spontaneous presence.

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

Emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is the space of possibility.

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

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 first noble truth of the Buddha is that life contains suffering. The second noble truth is that the cause of suffering is craving.

The experience of emptiness engenders compassion.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

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

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

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

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

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

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

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

The mind is the forerunner of all things. Our present life is the result of our past thoughts, and our future life will be the result of our present thoughts.

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.

When one sees with wisdom that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, one is liberated from suffering.

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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

When concentration is developed, wisdom arises. When wisdom arises, one becomes disenchanted with the five aggregates.

Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.

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 Buddha's teaching is not a philosophy or a religion; it is a method of practice.

Happiness is found in the simplest of things. It is not in the things you own, but in the love you share.

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

The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal.

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

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

The Buddha's teaching challenges us to master the art of living, to live in a way that leads to the extinction of suffering.