If we truly realize the interdependent nature of the dust, the flower, and the human being, we see that unity cannot exist without diversity. Unity and diversity interpenetrate each other freely. Unity is diversity.

In the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Hopeless fellows—using their heads to look for their heads!

Although we have been made to believe that if we let go we will end up with nothing, life reveals just the opposite: that letting go is the real path to freedom.

Behead yourself! … Dissolve your whole body into Vision: become seeing, seeing, seeing!

It is fabled that we slowly lose the gift of speech with animals, that birds no longer visit our windowsills to converse. As our eyes grow accustomed to sight they armor themselves against wonder.

Unity is an intellectual concept. On an emotional level unity is serenity, equality, and equilibrium.

If certain forms and formulas help you to realize the Divine, God speed you; have, by all means, whatever forms, and whatever temples, and whatever ceremonies you want to bring you nearer to God.

I have noticed that sometimes people speak of our planet as a thing. This attitude will not lead to the feelings of closeness and affection that would move us to take care of the earth.

Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness.

To search for God with logical proof is like searching for the sun with a lamp.

If I am building a mountain and stop before the last basket full of earth is placed on the summit, I have failed.

Spirituality is the recognition that our true self is soul, and when we identify with our soul, we will realize our oneness with God.

Life begins where fear ends.

Nothing in the world is softer and weaker than water. However, when attacking that which is hard and strong, nothing can surpass it and no one can equal it.

We are always at the beginning of things, in the fragile moment that holds the power of life. We are always at the morning of the world.

We are only one blink of an eye away from being fully “awake.”

This morning it rained. This afternoon it is sunny. How is that not like the mind?

You have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.

Meditation is simply getting to know your mind.

Let no one who loves be called altogether unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow.

Moments of real seeing are beyond the labeling propensity of the mind, beyond what we think we know. Seeing is a step into the unknown and requires some degree of intention and awakening. Real seeing—of ourselves, of others, and of the world—contains three defining characteristics: simultaneity, a direct perception in the present moment; objectivity, seeing…

Listen with the eye and see with the ear. Only then will you really understand. Only then will you hear the sermon of rock and water, the teachings of mountains and rivers.

The greatest gift of life on the mountain is time. Time to think or not think, read or not read, scribble or not scribble—to sleep and cook and walk in the woods, to sit and stare at the shapes of the hills. I produce nothing but words; I consume nothing but food, a little propane,…

When you’re in a state of awe, you’re in a persistent state of gratitude.

Many of us already live far more meaningful lives than we know. When we go beyond the superficial to the essential, things that are familiar and even commonplace are revealed in new ways.

People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.

All human life has its seasons, and no one’s personal chaos can be permanent: winter, after all, does not last forever, does it? There is summer, too, and spring, and though sometimes when branches stay dark and the earth cracks with ice, one thinks they will never come, that spring, that summer, but they do,…

A monk came to Master Joshu and said: “When a man is free of all possible possessions, what would you say?” / “Throw it away!” replied Joshu.

If we have not found heaven within, it is a certainty you will not find it without.