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

The path to liberation requires both understanding and practice, both pariyatti and patipatti.

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

Love is the wish that others be happy, and compassion is the wish that they be free from suffering.

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

The person who clings to nothing of the past, present and future, who has no attachment and no aversion, has no conceptual imprints.

The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment.

When one sees with wisdom that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, one is liberated from suffering.

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.

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

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.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

In our struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The purpose of life is to be happy, to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is not to be well known, cited, or powerful.

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

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

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

Altruism is not a luxury, it is a necessity for the survival of humanity.

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.

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

Without darkness, there is no light. Without the path, there is no arrival.

The root of suffering is attachment.

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.

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.

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

Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.

The law of nature is the law of cause and effect. As you sow, so shall you reap.

The experience of emptiness engenders compassion.

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

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

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

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.

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

Real freedom is not about controlling our experience, but about being free within our experience.

The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

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?

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

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

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

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

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

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

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

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.

If you want to know the past, look at the present. If you want to know the future, look at the present.

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

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

The purpose of Buddhist practice is not to become a Buddhist but to awaken to the nature of reality.

The nature of mind is like a mirror. It is not affected by whatever appears in it, yet it never fails to reflect everything perfectly.