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.

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

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

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

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

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

The more you understand impermanence, the more you appreciate every moment.

External phenomena are like a dream, whatever appears is not real. Recognize the nature of dream-like phenomena to be dream-like.

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

Our basic nature is pure awareness that simply cognizes experience. Everything else is temporary and adventitious.

The sign of wisdom is constant joy.

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

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

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.

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

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

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

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 Buddha and all sentient beings are nothing but expressions of the one mind. There is nothing else.

Past thoughts are traceless, clear, and empty. Future thoughts are unborn and fresh. The present moment abides naturally and unconstructed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

When mindfulness becomes continuous, the distinction between the observer and the observed begins to break down.

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

Life is available only in the present moment.

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

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

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

The awareness that you are here, right now, is the ultimate fact.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Right View is not just a matter of intellectual understanding but of seeing things as they really 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.

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

Neither from itself nor from another, nor from both, nor without a cause, does anything whatever, anywhere arise.

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.

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

The ultimate purpose of Buddhism is to serve and benefit humanity.

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.