Inner Peace

“If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.”

“The best way to avenge yourself is to not be like the wrongdoer.”

“People try to get away from it all — to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You too wish to get away. But that is undignified. You can get away from it all whenever you want, by retiring into yourself. Nowhere can a person find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”

“Is any man afraid of change? Why, what can take place without a change? Can anything that is useful or for the good of the universe be accomplished without change? Do you not see, then, that change in yourself is of the same order, and no less necessary to the nature of the universe?”

“It is not the things themselves that disturb people, but their judgements about these things.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Love, and do what you will.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“A happy life is one that is in harmony with its own nature.”

“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.”

“The Way never acts, yet nothing is left undone. If rulers could hold on to it, all things would transform on their own. If they transformed and wished to act, I would restrain them with the simplicity of the nameless. For in simplicity lies no desire, and in stillness all under heaven finds its own rest.”

“The minnows swim out so freely! That is the joy of fish. ... You ask me how I know that the fish are happy — and you know that I know it, because I know it from right here above the Hao.”

“Philosophy is the medicine of the soul; its aid is to be sought, not from heaven, but from our own efforts, and the soul is healed by philosophy just as the body is healed by medicine.”

“For this reason we call pleasure the beginning and the end of the blessed life. For we recognize it as the first and natural good, and from it we begin every choice and avoidance. We return to it, judging every good by the standard of pleasure as our criterion. And because this is the first and innate good, for this reason we do not choose every pleasure, but sometimes we pass over many pleasures when greater discomfort follows for us.”

“You can retreat into yourself at any moment: the mind is the citadel that no one can storm, and the person who has fortified the inner life has found the refuge that no enemy, no fortune, and no calamity can take.”

“Look within: the goods of the soul are within you, and they are the only goods that fortune cannot touch. The person who has found them has found the one wealth that cannot be taken away.”

“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

“Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuangzi. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”

“Attain the utmost in emptiness; hold fast to the utmost in stillness. The ten thousand things rise together, and I watch their return.”

“The soul of the philosopher thinks that it must not resist this deliverance, and so it cultivates calmness and joy and smooths the way for the deliverer.”

“The people you deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly.”

“Everything that happens is either endurable or not.”

“The best revenge is not to be like that.”