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

The purpose of our lives is to be happy, and happiness is found in benefiting others.

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

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

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

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

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.

The ocean does not reject any water; therefore it is great. The mountain does not select its stones; therefore it is great.

When you understand that all phenomena are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self, attachment naturally falls away.

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

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.

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

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.

Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.

In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they have contracted themselves into a single moment of the present where life quivers in its true sense.

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

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

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.

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

The path to enlightenment is not a path at all. It is a realization that where you are is where you have always been.

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.

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.

The more you understand impermanence, the more you appreciate every moment.

The path of practice requires both faith and wisdom, both devotion and understanding.

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

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

The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.

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

The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy. This is the goal of Buddhist practice.

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

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

Understanding means throwing away your knowledge.

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

The knowledge of dissolution comes when you see both the noting mind and noted object dissolving together.

Only one book is worth reading: the heart.

Just to be alive is enough.

The secret of happiness lies not in getting what we want, but in learning to want what we already have.

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

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

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

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

Intrinsically all living beings are Buddhas, just as ice and water are of the same substance.

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

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 contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience, which in its very nature transcends linguistics.

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

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

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

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel.

By understanding emptiness, one understands all phenomena. Without understanding emptiness, one understands nothing.