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

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

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

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

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

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

Awareness is the basis, or what you might call the "support," of the mind. It is steady and unchanging, like the pole to which the flag of ordinary consciousness is attached.

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

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

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

To live is enough.

The nature of everything is illusory and ephemeral, those with dualistic perception regard suffering as happiness, like they who lick the honey from a razor's edge.

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

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

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 walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

The mind that notes and the object that is noted are both impermanent. Understanding this leads to liberation.

All experiences are preceded by mind, having mind as their master, created by mind.

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

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

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 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.

When we understand others, we understand ourselves. When we love others, we love ourselves.

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

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

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

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

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.

The menu is not the meal.

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

Loving-kindness is not something we need to manufacture. It's a natural expression of our awakened nature.

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

You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.

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

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

Karma is not fate but the law of moral causation, showing us that we are the architects of our own destiny.

The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.

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

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

The cultivation of loving-kindness is the thread that runs through all Buddhist teachings.

To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.

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

For whom emptiness is possible, everything is possible. For whom emptiness is not possible, nothing is possible.

When you are you, Zen is Zen. Big mind is just big mind.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

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

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

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

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

There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way.

The quality of every moment depends on the state of our minds.

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

True freedom is not the absence of commitment but the presence of choice.

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

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

True freedom is a freedom from the tyranny of our own thoughts and afflictive emotions.

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.