True happiness is not found through the multiplication of desires but through their simplification.

Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead, it's about becoming more fully human.

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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.

All that appears and exists, all of samsara and nirvana, has one ground, two paths, and two results. This is the magical display of awareness and unawareness.

The nature of all things is like a magical illusion, a mirage, a dream, a reflection of the moon in water.

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

Few among men are they who cross to the further shore. The others merely run up and down the bank on this side.

The goal of the Buddhist path is not to add something to our existence but to discover something that has been there all along.

The essence of the teaching is emptiness and compassion. Without emptiness, compassion can become attachment. Without compassion, emptiness can become cold and distant.

The root of all suffering is ignorance. The antidote to ignorance is wisdom that realizes emptiness.

The nature of life is change. The nature of change is painful. The nature of pain is temporary.

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.

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

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

The key to the Buddha's teaching is not grasping, not trying to hold onto things that are essentially impermanent and unstable.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

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.

Intrinsically all living beings are Buddhas, just as ice and water are of the same substance.

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.

To live fully is to let go and die with each step.

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

The Buddha's teaching is a middle way between all extremes, between eternalism and annihilationism, between self-indulgence and self-torture.

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

Real happiness lies within. It cannot be found in external objects or achievements.

The truth of suffering is not to be feared but to be understood through direct observation.

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

The five aggregates are not a theoretical model but a description of lived experience to be investigated through mindfulness.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

Change is possible because there is nothing inherently permanent about our disturbing emotions.

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

The ocean does not reject any water; therefore it is great. The mountain does not select its stones; therefore it is great.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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 one who grasps at existence suffers in samsara, while the one who grasps at non-existence will find no liberation.

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 time of the past becomes the present, the time of the present becomes the future, the time of the future becomes the present, and the time of the present becomes the past.

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

Those who cling to perceptions and views wander the world offending people.

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

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

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