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

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

Real happiness comes from having an unshakable connection to the deep wellspring of peace and happiness that is not dependent on external conditions.

The sign of wisdom is constant joy.

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

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.

Both formerly and now, it is only suffering that I describe, and the cessation of suffering.

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

The highest truth cannot be taught except through the conventional truth.

To live – is that not enough? To love – is that not everything?

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

To see the truth, do not be for or against. The struggle between for and against is the mind's worst disease.

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

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

To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

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

Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

The first noble truth of the Buddha is that life contains suffering. The second noble truth is that the cause of suffering is craving.

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

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

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

The water in the ocean can be rough or calm. It can be clear or murky. But the water itself doesn't mind.

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.

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

The Noble Eightfold Path is not a path of mere intellectual understanding but a path of practice, of inner transformation.

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

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

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

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dependent origination is not a theory about the origin of the world but a teaching that shows how suffering originates in dependence on our own mental processes.

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

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

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

The mind that sees its own nature becomes free from all extremes.

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

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

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

What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.

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

The Buddha's teaching is not about belief but about investigation, not about accepting but about examining.

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

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

Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.

The biggest prison is the one we build in our own mind.

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

Just to be alive is enough.