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

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 Buddhist practice is not to become a Buddhist but to awaken to 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.

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

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.

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

Real happiness lies within. It cannot be found in external objects or achievements.

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

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

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

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

Only one book is worth reading: the heart.

Past thoughts are traceless, clear, and empty. Future thoughts are unborn and fresh. The present moment abides naturally and unconstructed.

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.

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

Since all things are empty of inherent existence, anything is possible. If things had inherent existence, nothing would be possible.

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead, it's about becoming more fully human.

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.

The root of suffering is attachment.

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.

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

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

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 and all sentient beings are nothing but expressions of the one mind. There is nothing else.

Wisdom says we are nothing. Love says we are everything. Between these two our life flows.

Loving-kindness is not something we need to manufacture. It's a natural expression of our awakened nature.

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.

The dharma is not about collecting more beliefs but about becoming free from the power of belief itself.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

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

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

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

The practice of Buddhism is fundamentally a practice of expanding our happiness and diminishing our suffering.

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

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

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

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

The root of all suffering is ignorance. The antidote to ignorance is wisdom that realizes emptiness.

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

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

Craving and aversion are the roots of suffering. Observe them with equanimity.

The mind is intrinsically empty. It's empty of all that we perceive as being intrinsically "me" and "mine."

The Noble Eightfold Path is not a path of mere intellectual understanding but a path of practice, of inner transformation.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

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

The Buddha's teachings are not a religion, but a science of mind.

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.

The mind is the forerunner of all things. Our present life is the result of our past thoughts, and our future life will be the result of our present thoughts.

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

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

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

All that appears and exists, all of samsara and nirvana, has one ground, two paths, and two results. This is the magical display of awareness and unawareness.