The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

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

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

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

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

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 root of suffering is attachment.

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

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

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

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

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

The essence of the spiritual journey is the uncovering of what is always already present.

Those who grasp at things as truly existent are like someone trying to catch the reflection of the moon in water.

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.

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.

The past is for learning from, not for living in.

The path to liberation requires both individual effort and the support of the spiritual community.

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

The path of awakening is not about becoming who you are. Rather it is about unbecoming who you are not.

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

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

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.

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

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

The secret of happiness is to want what you already have.

The more we understand impermanence, the more we appreciate each moment of our lives.

The Dhamma unfolds in accordance with a definite sequence: faith, virtue, learning, generosity, wisdom, and insight.

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

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

The path of awakening is not about becoming who we think we should be, but about unbecoming who we are not.

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

When you realize the emptiness of all phenomena, compassion will arise in your heart for all sentient beings who do not understand this truth.

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

All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddha.

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

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

What Zen wants us to do is to acquire an entirely new point of view whereby to look into the mysteries of life and the secrets of nature.

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma.

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

If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look into your present actions.

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 mind of the past is ungraspable; the mind of the future is ungraspable; the mind of the present is ungraspable.

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

Life is available only in the present moment.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

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

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

Like a dream, like an illusion, like a city of gandharvas, that's how birth, and that's how living, that's how dying are taught to be.

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

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

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

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

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

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

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

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

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.