“Whoever realizes that the six senses aren’t real, that the five aggregates are fictions, that no such things can be located anywhere in the body, understands the language of Buddhas.”

Trying to find a buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space.

Someone who seeks the Way doesn’t look beyond himself.

Leaving behind the false, return to the true: make no discriminations between self and others. In contemplation, one’s mind should be stable and unmoving, like a wall.

Unless you see your nature, all this talk about cause & effect is nonsense. Buddhas don’t practice nonsense.

The mind’s capacity is limitless, and its manifestations are inexhaustible. Seeing forms with your eyes, hearing sounds with your ears, smelling odors with your nose, tasting flavors with your tongue, every movement or state is all your mind.

The essence of the Way is detachment.

To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature.

Once you see your nature, sex is basically immaterial.

Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and devoid of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn’t exist.

Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.

The Buddha is your real body, your original mind.

The true Way is sublime. It can’t be expressed in language. Of what use are scriptures? But someone who sees his own nature finds the Way, even if he can’t read a word.

But when you first embark on the Path, your awareness won’t be focused. You’re likely to see all sorts of strange, dreamlike scenes. But you shouldn’t doubt that all such scenes come from your own mind and nowhere else.

The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They’re not the Way.

Our nature is the mind. And the mind is our nature.

To have a body is to suffer. Does anyone with a body know peace? Those who understand this detach themselves from all that exists and stop imagining or seeking anything. The sutras say, “To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.” When you seek nothing, you’re on the Path.

Rhetoric does not get you anywhere, because Hitler and Mussolini are just as good at rhetoric. But if you can bring these people down with comedy, they stand no chance.

I’m very pleased to be here. Let’s face it, at my age I’m very pleased to be anywhere.

The prevailing – and foolish – attitude is that a good manager can be a good manager anywhere, with no special knowledge of the production process he’s managing.

It’s good to be here. At 98, it’s good to be anywhere.

Nice to be here? At my age it’s nice to be anywhere.

I’ll try any guitar just to see if it’s different in an effort to see if it will lead me anywhere.

All I know is, if you listen to society, you’ll never get anywhere!

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.