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

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

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

The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

Enlightenment is not the end of change but the end of resistance to change.

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

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

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

Your own treasure house contains everything you need; why search outside?

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

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.

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.

The goal of Buddhist practice is not to escape from the world but to transform our relationship with it.

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

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

The realization of impermanence leads not to despair but to a deeper appreciation of the preciousness of each moment.

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.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

The nature of life is change. The nature of change is painful. The nature of pain is temporary.

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

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

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

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

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.

Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

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

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves.

The path of practice moves from faith through understanding to direct realization.

The three characteristics - impermanence, suffering, and non-self - are not philosophical concepts but aspects of experience to be directly observed.

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

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

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

Understanding means throwing away your knowledge.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.

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

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.

The experience of emptiness engenders compassion.

The mind that notes and the object that is noted are both impermanent. Understanding this leads to liberation.

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

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.

Just as the great ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so also this teaching and discipline has one taste, the taste of liberation.

True freedom is a freedom from the tyranny of our own thoughts and afflictive emotions.

The first noble truth of the Buddha is that life contains suffering. The second noble truth is that the cause of suffering is craving.

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

Life is available only in the present moment.

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

Change is possible because there is nothing inherently permanent about our disturbing emotions.

The most important factor in achieving happiness is the mind. Happiness and suffering are mental states and therefore depend on the mind.

The Buddha's teaching is not about belief but about investigation, not about accepting but about examining.

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