“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.”

If we should be blessed by some great reward, such as fame or fortune, it’s the fruit of a seed planted by us in the past.

To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity.

If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won’t see the Buddha.

To have a body is to suffer.

The mind is always present. You just don’t see it.

People who don’t see their own nature and imagine they can practice thoughtlessness all the time are liars and fools.

Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma, because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing, and because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding.

As mortals, we’re ruled by conditions, not by ourselves.

The awareness of mortals falls short. As long as they’re attached to appearances, they’re unaware that their minds are empty. And by mistakenly clinging to the appearance of things they lose the Way.

To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.

Everything sacred, nothing sacred.

I do not need any writing, since I transmit teaching beyond words and ideas.

You can’t know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.

But deluded people don’t realize that their own mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside.

But people of the deepest understanding look within, distracted by nothing. Since a clear mind is the Buddha, they attain the understanding of a Buddha without using the mind.

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.

If you start from nothing, it is very difficult to get anywhere.

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

You will not find poetry anywhere unless you bring some of it with you.

My dad is the best and funniest newspaper columnist. There is nobody anywhere near as good.

That’s an exciting thing. In a class of fifteen there are usually two very good writers, equal to good student writers anywhere in the country. Those two make the class wonderful.

My parents were so poor when I was a kid, I never went anywhere.