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

Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: you won't be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.

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

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

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

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

The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech.

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.

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

To live is enough.

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

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

The Buddha's teaching challenges us to master the art of living, to live in a way that leads to the extinction of suffering.

The secret of happiness is to want what you already have.

The essence of all phenomena is empty and clear like space. The nature of mind is awareness-emptiness like the sun and sky.

Wisdom is not about accumulating knowledge, but about seeing through all knowledge.

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

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

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

The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

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

The path of awakening is not about becoming who you are. Rather it is about unbecoming who you are not.

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

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.

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

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

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

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

Each moment of clear seeing is a moment of freedom from the illusion of permanence, satisfaction, and self.

The eye with which I see Buddha is the same eye with which Buddha sees me.

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

The cultivation of loving-kindness is the thread that runs through all Buddhist teachings.

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

You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.

When concentration is developed, wisdom arises. When wisdom arises, one becomes disenchanted with the five aggregates.

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

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

The Dhamma unfolds in accordance with a definite sequence: faith, virtue, learning, generosity, wisdom, and insight.

The defilements of the mind are temporary visitors. Pure awareness is your true home.

Instead of having a deep understanding of the teaching, we need a strong confidence in our teaching, which says that originally we have Buddha nature.

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

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.

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.

Happiness is not the pursuit of an endless succession of experiences but an attitude toward life.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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

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

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.

Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.

Enlightenment is not about becoming something special, but about realizing what we already are.

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

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.

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

The victorious ones have said that emptiness is the relinquishing of all views. Those who are possessed of the view of emptiness are said to be incurable.

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

Birth and death are neither two things nor one thing. Life is not an appearance, death is not a disappearance.