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

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

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.

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

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

The Dhamma is not a collection of doctrinal formulas but a path leading to direct insight into the nature of reality.

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

The goal of Buddhist practice is not to escape from the world but to transform our relationship with it.

Wisdom is not something we have to strive to acquire. Rather, wisdom arises naturally as we open our hearts to the truth of what is.

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

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

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

The nature of everything is empty and clear, and the mind is beyond both existence and nonexistence.

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

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

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

Enlightenment is not about becoming something special, but about realizing what we already are.

True peace is found not in the absence of experience but in the clear seeing of all experience.

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

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

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

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

Enlightenment is not the end of change but the end of resistance to change.

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

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

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

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

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.

Recognize the emptiness of all phenomena, but do not become attached to emptiness itself.

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

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

The more you understand, the more you love; the more you love, the more you understand.

Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.

The essence of Buddhism is not a belief system but a systematic investigation of our experience.

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

Everybody has the light of Buddha within, but they don't look for it.

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

People who study a lot but don't practice are like a ladle in a soup pot. It's in the soup every day, but it doesn't know the taste of the soup.

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

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

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

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

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

The dharma is not about collecting more beliefs but about becoming free from the power of belief itself.

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

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

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

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

Sankharas are the seeds of consciousness that manifest as sensations. By observing sensations equanimously, we stop creating new sankharas.

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 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.

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.

Ethical conduct is not a constraint upon our freedom but a condition of our freedom.

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

Instead of having a deep understanding of the teaching, we need a strong confidence in our teaching, which says that originally we have Buddha nature.

Because you are alive, everything is possible.

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

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

The lamp of wisdom burns constantly, illuminating the nature of mind.

The purpose of Buddhist practice is not to become a Buddhist but to awaken to the nature of reality.