The realization of impermanence leads not to despair but to a deeper appreciation of the preciousness of each moment.

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

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

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.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.

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

The essence of all phenomena is empty and clear like space. The nature of mind is awareness-emptiness like the sun and sky.

Life is an art, and like perfect art it should be self-forgetting.

Peace is not found by changing the world, but by changing your attitude to the world.

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

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

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

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

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

If you see certainty in that which is uncertain, you are bound to suffer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The practice of ethics is not about following rules but about developing inner purity and freedom.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

The path to enlightenment is not a path at all. It is a realization that where you are is where you have always been.

Because you are alive, everything is possible.

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

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

True happiness is not about getting rid of all our problems, but about changing our relationship to them.

The world is its own magic.

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

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.

Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher.

As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

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

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

The only things that are truly mine are my actions and their results.

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

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.

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

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

The heart of the path is quite simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are.

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

Nothing is permanent. Everything is subject to change. Being is always becoming.

The Buddha's path is not about becoming somebody different but about becoming more and more who you really are.

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

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.

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

Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.

The path of insight is a path of discovery, not a path of creation. We are discovering what is already there.

The true person is not anyone in particular. But like the deep blue color of the limitless sky, it is everyone, everywhere in the world.

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.