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

Just to be alive is enough.

The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.

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 happiness is born of letting go of what is unnecessary.

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

Don't try to push away the darkness. Just light a lamp. The darkness will disappear by itself.

The menu is not the meal.

The Buddha taught that wealth does not bring happiness and security. The pursuit of wealth is a matter of living in balance.

The more you understand, the more you love; the more you love, the more you understand.

All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddha.

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

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

Only one book is worth reading: the heart.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

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

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

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

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

Happiness is not about getting what you want, but wanting what you've got.

To live is enough.

The ultimate revolution is the spiritual revolution, where we learn to see reality as it truly is.

When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

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

The practice of vipassana is the study of the self. When you study physical and mental phenomena, you are studying the truth about yourself.

We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.

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

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

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

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

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

Buddhas and ordinary beings are not two. Enlightenment and delusion are not different paths.

The practice of ethics is not about following rules but about developing inner purity and freedom.

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.

Whatever is dependently co-arisen, that is explained to be emptiness. That, being a dependent designation, is itself the middle way.

Don't be a bodhisatta; don't be an arahant; don't be anything at all. Being something makes you suffer.

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

The sign of wisdom is constant joy.

Zen is not necessarily against words, but it is well aware of their limitations.

The root of suffering is attachment.

When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth.

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

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

The way we look at the world is the way the world looks.

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

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

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

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

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 Buddha taught us to leave alone the things that don't lead to awakening.

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

All worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death.

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

Because you are alive, everything is possible.