The One Mind of heaven and earth is dyed
into a thousand different grass colors.
(Buddhism, Zen poem)


Whether the world is eternal or transient, there is suffering,
and I teach the way to understand it.
(Majjhima Nikaya)

Life is a journey.
Death is a return to the earth.
The universe is like an inn.
The passing years are like dust.

Regard this phantom world
As a star at dawn,
A bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp -
A phantom - and a dream.
Vairacchedika 32 (Diamond Sutra)


So I declare that in this six-foot-long body with its perceptions
and thinking lies the world, the beginning of the world, the ending of the world,
and the way to the ending of the world.
(Majjjhima Nikaya)

The world is full of suffering.
Birth is suffering,
old age is suffering,
sickness and death are sufferings.
(Setting in motion the wheel of Truth,
The First Sermon of the Buddha)


"Are you a god?" "No, brahman, I am not a god."
"Then an angel?" "No, indeed, brahman."
"A spirit, then?" "No, I am not a spirit."
"Then what are you?"
"I am awake."
(Anguttara Nikaya)

The Noble Truth of the Path leading to the Cessation of suffering is this: It is simply the Eightfold Path, namely right view; right thought; right speech, right action; right livelihood; right effort; right mindfulness; right concentration.
(The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path)


Om mani padme hum.
The Jewel is in the lotus.
(Buddhist mantra)


Suffering, as a noble truth, is this: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, sorrow and pain… and despair are suffering, association with the loathed is suffering, dissociation from the loved is suffering, not to get what one wants is suffering - in short suffering is the five [groups] of clinging objects.
Thus the origin of suffering, as a noble truth, is this: It is the craving that produces renewal of beings, accompanied by enjoyment and lust - in other words, craving for sensual desires, craving for being, craving for non-being.
(Setting in motion the wheel of Truth, the Buddha's first sermon)


All the effort must be made by you; Buddhas only show the way.
Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom. (Dhammapada 20)


My teaching does not depend on whether I exist after death or not,
because I am concerned with suffering here and now.
(Majjhima Nikaya)


"Now, what, your reverence, is Nirvana?"
"Whatever, your reverence, is the extinction of passion,
of aversion, of confusion, his is called Nirvana."
(Questions of King Milinda)

When the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara was engaged in the practice of the deep Prajnaparamita, he perceived that there are five skandhas; and these he saw in their self-nature to be empty. He resolved to save all the suffering beings.
O Sariputra, form is here emptiness, emptiness is form
Gate, gate, gate, para sam gate, bodhi svaha! (O, Bodhi, gone, gone, gone to the other shore, landed at the other shore, Svaha!)
-(The Heart Sutra)