Eventually we will find (mostly in retrospect, of course) that we can be very grateful to those people who have made life most difficult for us.

- Ayya Khema, "When the Iron Eagle Flies"


From this point on you really know. This is called the pinnacle of Zen, the sovereignty of Zen. It is also called knowledge of what is knowable; it produces all the various states of meditation, and anoints the heads of all spiritual princes. In all fields of form, sound, fragrance, flavor, feeling, and phenomena, you realize complete perfect enlightenment. Inside and outside are in complete communion, without any obstruction at all.

- Pai-chang, "The Sphere of the Enlightened"


What is this true meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan.

- Hakuin, "Zen Master Hakuin"


A man born in the world, by proper thought comes to delight in goodness, he recognizes the impermanence of wealth and beauty; and looks upon religion as his best ornament.

- Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King


In the face of realitys illumination There is neither self nor other, No duality, no division-void of identity And yet neither void Nor not void, Theres no perceiver at all. Eh Ma! Until a mountain yogi Has realized well the meaning of this, He should not disparage cause and result!

- Drinking the Mountain Stream: Songs of Tibets Beloved Saint, Milarepa


In the face of realitys illumination There is neither self nor other, No duality, no division-void of identity And yet neither void Nor not void, Theres no perceiver at all. Eh Ma! Until a mountain yogi Has realized well the meaning of this, He should not disparage cause and result!

- Drinking the Mountain Stream: Songs of Tibets Beloved Saint, Milarepa


Monks, this committed life is not lived in order to deceive people, or to convert them. It is not lived for the sake of gain or honor or reputation or financial profit. There is no idea of "let me draw people's attention to me by being a this or a that." No, monks, this committed life is lived for the sake of seeing into things and understanding them.

- Itivuttaka Sutta


The pleasure and joy that arise in dependence on the eye: this is the gratification in the eye. That the eye is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change: this is the danger in the eye. The removal and abandonment of desire and lust from the eye: this is the escape from the eye.

- Buddha, "The Connected Discourses of the Buddha"


It is crucial to know when it is appropriate to withdraw our attention from things that disturb our mind. However, if the only way we know how to deal with certain objects is to avoid them, there will be a severe limit as to how far our spiritual practice can take us.

- Lama Thubten Yeshe, "Introduction to Tantra"