Irrigators guide the water. Fletchers shape the arrow shaft. Carpenters shape the wood. The wise control themselves.

- Dhammapada, 6, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

The real basis of Buddhism is full knowledge of the truth of reality. If one knows this truth then no teaching is necessary. If one doesn't know, even if he listens to the teaching, he doesn't really hear.

- Ajahn Chah, "Taste of Freedom"

I urge you not to throw away time, for it's swift as an arrow, fast as a stream. Distraction is entirely due to lack of concentration; stupidity and blindness are caused by lack of true knowledge.

- Yung-Ming, "Five Houses of Zen

Those who would learn Buddhahood should just break through the seeds of karma by means of the power of great devotion, then recognize cause and effect and be wary of sin and virtue.

- Huai-t'ang

What, now is the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering? It is craving, which gives rise to fresh rebirth, and, bound up with pleasure and lust, now here, now there, finds ever-fresh delight. But where does this craving arise and take root? Wherever in the world there are delightful and pleasurable things, there this craving rises and takes root. Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind are delightful and pleasurable: there this craving arises and takes root.

- The Four Nobel Truths (from the Samyutta Nikaya, translated by Nyanatiloka)


The ultimate way is without difficulty; those who seek it make their own hardship. The true mind is originally pure; those who exercise it make their own defilement.

- Hui-k'ung

Seeing ourselves plainly, we can change, and as we do so, it brings a feeling of great relief, as if we had dropped a heavy load.

- Ayya Khema, "Who is My Self?"

If you think, I breathe, the I is extra. There is no you to say I. What we call I is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no I, no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.

- Shunryu Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind"