“A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself.”

No matter how bad a state of mind you may get into, if you keep strong and hold out, eventually the floating clouds must vanish and the withering wind must cease.

You should stop searching for phrases and chasing after words. Take the backward step and turn the light inward. Your body-mind of itself will drop off and your original face will appear. If you want to attain just this, immediately practice just this.

An ancient buddha said, “Mountains are mountains; waters are waters.” These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.

That you carry yourself forward and experience the myriad things is delusion. That the myriad things come forward and experience themselves is awakening

The coming and going of birth and death is a painting. Unsurpassed enlightenment is a painting. The entire phenomenal universe and the empty sky are nothing but a painting.

Why abandon a seat in your own home to wander in vain through dusty regions of another land? If you make one false step, you miss what is right before your eyes.

To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

There are thousands upon thousands of students who have practiced meditation and obtained its fruits. Do not doubt its possibilities because of the simplicity of the method. If you can not find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

Refraining from all evil, not clinging to birth and death, working in deep compassion for all sentient beings, respecting those over you and pitying those below you, without any detesting or desiring, worrying or lamentation – this is what is called Buddha. Do not search beyond it.

Sitting is the gateway of truth to total liberation.

If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.

Time is three eyes and eight elbows.

Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.

Those who practice know whether realization is attained or not, just as those who drink water know whether it is hot or cold

IF YOU WOULD BE FREE OF GREED, FIRST YOU HAVE TO LEAVE EGOTISM BEHIND. THE BEST MENTAL EXERCISE FOR RELINQUISHING EGOTISM IS CONTEMPLATING IMPERMANENCE.

All the gang of those who rule us Hope our quarrels never stop Helping them to split and fool us So they can remain on top.

A philospher sees the Earth as a large planet, travelling through the heavens, covered with fools

Fortune, that favors fools.

As for the accusation of intellectual pride, surely the boot is on the other foot. Atheists don’t claim to know anything with certainty — it’s the believers who know it all.

The most annoying of all blockheads is a well-read fool.

I never learned to read or write music. Never wanted to fool with scales. That was boring, forced. The music I heard was free – flowing.

He who is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

I am comfortable playing the fool, I think.