a. “Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream; Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud, Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream. So is all conditioned existence to be seen." - The Diamond Sutta
b. "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form Emptiness is not separate from form, form is not separate from emptiness Whatever is form is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is form." - The Heart Suttra
c. “Know all things to be like this:/ A mirage, a cloud castle, /A dream, an apparition, /Without essence, but with qualities that can be seen. Know all things to be like this: / As the moon in a bright sky / In some clear lake reflected, / Though to that lake the moon has never moved. Know all things to be like this: / As an echo that derives / From music, sounds, and weeping, / Yet in that echo is no melody. Know all things to be like this: / As a magician makes illusions / Of horses, oxen, carts and other things,/ Nothing is as it appears.” The Buddha in theSamadhi Raja Sutra
d. "The supreme goal of the teachings is the emptiness whose nature is compassion." Atisha
e. “"The one thing to be attained is essentially void and compassionate. Let me explain. The realisation of voidness is the absolute spirit of enlightenment; it is seeing that all things are unborn. Compassion is the relative spirit of enlightenment; it is reaching out in love to all beings who have yet to realise that they are unborn. Those who follow the Mahayana path should develop these two forms of the spirit of enlightenment." - Drom Tonpa
a. “To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature. Your nature is the Buddha. And the Buddha is the person who's free: free of plans, free of cares. If you don't see your nature and run around all day looking somewhere else, you'll never find a Buddha. The truth is, there's nothing to find. But to reach such an understanding you need a teacher and you need to struggle to make yourself understand.” – Bodhidharma
b. “There is a simple way to become Buddha: When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no designing thoughts or worries, you will be called a Buddha. Do not seek anything else.” - Zen Master Dogen
c. "Tathagata is Nirvana; And Nirvana is referred to as the nature of Buddha. An ordinary person cannot be enlightened (in this world), But can realize it In the Land of Serene Sustenance." -Shinran (a Pure Land, Mahayana, Buddhist teacher)
d. Tathāgata means literally either “the one who has gone to suchness” or "the one who has arrived at suchness"
a. “By relaxing the mind, you can reconnect with that primordial, original ground, which is completely pure and simple.” - by Chogyam Trungpa from Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior
b. "To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature. Your nature is the Buddha. And the Buddha is the person who's free: free of plans, free of cares. If you don't see your nature and run around all day looking somewhere else, you'll never find a Buddha. The truth is, there's nothing to find. But to reach such an understanding you need a teacher and you need to struggle to make yourself understand." – Bodhidharma
c. "Because we don’t recognize our essential nature—we don’t realize that although appearances arise unceasingly, nothing is really there—we invest with solidity and reality the seeming truth of self, other, and actions between self and others. This intellectual obscuration gives rise to attachment and aversion, followed by actions and reactions that create karma, solidify into habit, and perpetuate the cycles of suffering. This entire process needs to be purified." Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
d. We have to understand the middle path: that a human has a positive and a negative side. We have a false, ignorant side, but we also have a beautiful potential - Buddha nature. Lama Yeshe
e. “Unborn and imperishable Is the original mind." - Bakei (1622-1693)
f. “Not a single one of you people at this meeting is unenlightened. Right now, you're all sitting before me as Buddhas. Each of you received the Buddha-mind from your mothers when you were born, and nothing else. This inherited Buddha-mind is beyond any doubt unborn, with a marvelously bright illuminative wisdom. In the Unborn, all things are perfectly resolved.” - Bankei (1622-1693)
g. “If you cannot find the Truth right here and right now, where else do you expect to find it?” “Do not strive to become Buddha” – Zen Master Dogen
a. “When defiling mental qualities are abandoned and bright mental qualities have grown, and one enters & remains in the culmination & abundance of discernment, having known & realized it for oneself in the here & now, there is joy, rapture, serenity, mindfulness, alertness, and a pleasant/happy abiding.” - Potthapada Sutta
b. "And just this noble eightfold path is the path of practice leading to the cessation of form, i.e., right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. The fact that pleasure & happiness arise in dependence on form: that is the allure of form. The fact that form is inconstant, stressful, subject to change: that is the drawback of form. The subduing of desire & passion for form, the abandoning of desire & passion for form: that is the escape from form." – Buddha, the Sattatthana Sutta: Seven Bases
c. “There is a simple way to become Buddha: When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no designing thoughts or worries, you will be called a Buddha. Do not seek anything else.” - Zen Master Dogen