Buddhism

“All phenomena are preceded by the mind. The mind is their master; they are produced by the mind. If one speaks or acts with a corrupted mind, suffering follows, as the wheel of the cart follows the ox's hoof.”

“Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an ancient law.”

“There is no fire like passion. There is no grip like anger. There is no net like delusion. There is no river like craving.”

“As rain leaks into an ill-thatched house, so passion enters an uncultivated mind. As rain does not leak into a well-thatched house, so passion does not enter a cultivated mind.”

“You yourselves must make the effort. The Buddhas are only teachers. Those who enter this path and practice meditation are freed from Mara's bonds.”

“Time is not separate from you, and you are not separate from time. You must realize that time is you, and you are time.”

“Just as a mother would protect her only child with her life even so let one cultivate a boundless love towards all beings.”

“All conditioned things are impermanent — when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.”

“Radical acceptance is the courage to let things be as they are. It is not resignation. It is the willingness to see clearly what is happening, without the veil of judgment, and to respond from that clarity.”

“The trance of unworthiness is the feeling that something is wrong with me, that I am not enough. It is a trance because it is not the truth — it is a spell cast by conditioning, by fear, by forgetting who we are.”

“Happily we live, we who possess nothing; feeders on joy shall we be, like the radiant gods.”

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

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”

“Wherever you go, there you are. You can't get away from yourself, no matter how hard you try, no matter how many places you travel to, no matter how many new beginnings you manufacture.”

“You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

“Failure is a secret ingredient of a wise life. It is the thing that teaches us what we need to know, if we can stay with it instead of running away.”

“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be constantly in no-man's-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh.”

“The essence of meditation is not about staying with the breath forever. It is about beginning again. That moment of noticing you've wandered and choosing to return — that is the practice.”

“Our happiness does not stand alone, nor does it come from being alone. It is inextricably linked with the happiness of others.”

“You are not your mind. You are the awareness that is aware of the mind. The moment you realize this, you have stepped out of the mind's grip.”

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.”

“Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.”

“A special transmission outside the scriptures; no dependence on words and letters; direct pointing at the mind of man; seeing into one's nature and attaining Buddhahood.”

“Therefore, Ananda, be a lamp unto yourselves, be a refuge unto yourselves; take no other refuge. Hold to the Dhamma as a lamp, hold to the Dhamma as a refuge.”

“All conditioned dharmas are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, like dew, like a flash of lightning — and should be viewed as such.”

“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness is no other than form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.”

“The rain from a single cloud falls in a single stream, yet each plant and tree, each herb and shrub, receives its own measure of water and grows.”

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

“No man is devoid of a heart sensitive to the suffering of others. Such a heart is the origin of humaneness.”

“Zazen is the gateway of total repose and bliss. The body and mind of all buddhas are the body and mind of all beings. Zazen is neither a technique nor a method. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease.”

“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away.”

“Good friends, in this teaching of mine, from ancient times up to the present, all have established no-thought as the main doctrine, non-form as the substance, and non-abiding as the basis.”