Lightning flashes!
So bright in the eyes of those
clutching at the thought of death.

Shut your mouth, close your lips, and say something!

It takes a long time to understand nothing. 

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand; for all that is life. 

Outside mind 
there is no Buddha, 
outside Buddha 
there is no mind.

Since it is the practice of enlightenment, that practice has no beginning, and since it is enlightenment with the practice, that realization has no end.

The moon shining full
smoke drifting away
over water

Clouds come from time to time—
and bring to men a chance to rest
from looking at the moon. 

Fundamentally, not one thing exists.

Empty-handed I entered the world
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going—
Two simple happenings
That got entangled.

I pray for all of us, oppressor and friend, that together we may succeed in building a better world through human understanding and love, and that in doing so we may reduce the pain and suffering of all sentient beings.

I knew … that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. ... The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.

It is eternity now, I am in the midst of it,
It is about me in the sunshine; I am in it;
as the butterfly in the light-laden air.
Nothing has to come; it is now. 
Now is eternity; now is the immortal life.  

The idea is like grass.  It craves sunlight, likes crowds, thrives on crossbreeding, grows better for being stepped on.

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall—think of it, ALWAYS. 

I used to think the brain was the most important part of the body, and then I realized, "Yeah, but look who's telling you that.”

Doctor, doctor tell me what I am: am I one of those human beings?

A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self.  We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.

We hate suffering, but we love the causes of it.

Nothing worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.  Nothing that is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.  Nothing that we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love.