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

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

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

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

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.

Emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is the space of possibility.

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

Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.

The goal of Buddhist practice is not to escape from the world but to transform our relationship with it.

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

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

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The teaching of the Buddha is based on two truths: conventional truth and ultimate truth. Without understanding the relationship between these two, the deeper meaning of the Buddha's teaching cannot be understood.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Real peace comes from seeing things as they really are, not as we want them to be.

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

The experience of emptiness engenders compassion.

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

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

My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra. My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantabhadri. I belong to the caste of non-duality of these two.

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

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

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

The mind is the source of all happiness and the source of all suffering.

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

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

When we understand that peace is not dependent on external conditions, we can find it in the midst of any circumstance.

The awareness that you are here, right now, is the ultimate fact.

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.

Life is like a cup of tea. It's all in how you make it.

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

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

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?

If you want to know your past life, look at your present condition. If you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.

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

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

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

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

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

Our true nature is like a diamond - pure, brilliant, and indestructible. No matter how much dirt covers it, its essential nature remains unchanged.

Although all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they function perfectly well.

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

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

The Four Noble Truths are not mere doctrinal propositions but a framework for understanding and transforming our lives.

The way is basically perfect. It is not a matter of practice or enlightenment.

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

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.

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

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