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

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

The key to the Buddha's teaching is not grasping, not trying to hold onto things that are essentially impermanent and unstable.

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

The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy. This is the goal of Buddhist practice.

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.

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

Happiness is not about getting what you want, but wanting what you've got.

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

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

Don't take life too seriously. No one gets out alive anyway.

The practice of vipassana is the study of the self. When you study physical and mental phenomena, you are studying the truth about yourself.

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

Real happiness comes from having an unshakable connection to the deep wellspring of peace and happiness that is not dependent on external conditions.

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

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

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

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

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

Just as the great ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so also this teaching and discipline has one taste, the taste of liberation.

The past is just a memory. The future is just a dream. Be here now.

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

Whatever precious jewel there is in the heavenly worlds, there is nothing comparable to one who is awakened.

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

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

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

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

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

If you want to know your past life, look at your present condition. If you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.

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

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

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

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.

Change is possible because there is nothing inherently permanent about our disturbing emotions.

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

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

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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.

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

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

The purpose of life is to be happy, to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is not to be well known, cited, or powerful.

The path to liberation is through understanding the true nature of mind and matter through direct observation.

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

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

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

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

When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth.

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

When you understand that all phenomena are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self, attachment naturally falls away.

Intrinsically all living beings are Buddhas, just as ice and water are of the same substance.

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