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The voidness of the universe
Is capable of containing all
Things of various forms and shapes,
Such as the sun, moon, stars,
Mountains, rivers, the great earth,
Springs, streams, mountain torrents,
Plants, trees and woods,
Good and bad people,
Good and bad things,
Heavens and hells,
All the great oceans.
All these are in the void.
The voidness of worldly people
Is also like it.

Altar Sutra

We should cultivate Buddhahood
Within our own nature and should
Not seek it outside the body.
If deluded, the self-nature is a living being.
If enlightened, the self-nature is a Buddha.
Kindness and compassion are
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.
Joy and indifference or renunciation are
Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva.
The ability to purify self is
Sakyamuni Buddha.
Impartiality and straightforwardness
Are Amitabha Buddha.

Altar Sutra

Without beginning or ending, your original wisdom has been shining forever, like the sun.
To know whether or not this is true, look inside your own mind.

~ Padmasambhava (8th c)

We loosely talk of Self-realization, for lack of a better term.
But how can one realize or make real that which alone is real?

All we need to do is to give up our habit of regarding as real that which is unreal.
All religious practices are meant solely to help us do this.

When we stop regarding the unreal as real, then reality alone will remain, and we will be that.

~ Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950)

@rookie54 said
We loosely talk of Self-realization, for lack of a better term.
But how can one realize or make real that which alone is real?

All we need to do is to give up our habit of regarding as real that which is unreal.
All religious practices are meant solely to help us do this.

When we stop regarding the unreal as real, then reality alone will remain, and we will be that.

~ Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950)

When you stop your compulsive mind,
to reach the point where not a single thing is born,
you pass through to freedom,
no longer falling into feelings and not dwelling on concepts,
transcending all completely.

Then Zen is obvious everywhere in the world,
with the totality of everything everywhere turning into its great function.
Everything comes from your own heart.
This is what one ancient called bringing out the family treasure.

~ Yuan wu (1063-1135)

Just be straightforward and do not cling to
Anything. Deluded people grasp the
Dharma and hold on to the samadhi of
Universality.

They claim that the samadhi
Of universality consists of sitting
Motionless all the time without
Any uprise in the mind.

Such an interpretation makes the
Meditators inanimate and hinders
The realization of self-nature.

Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached,
don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.

~ Confucius

The ancient masters slept without dreams and woke up without worries.
Their food was plain. Their breath came from deep inside them.
They didn’t cling to life, weren’t anxious about death.

They emerged without desire and reentered without resistance.
They came easily; they went easily. They didn’t forget where they were from;
they didn’t ask where they were going.

They took everything as it came, gladly, and walked into death without fear.
They accepted life as a gift, and they handed it back gratefully,

~ Chuang-tzu

@rookie54 said
The ancient masters slept without dreams and woke up without worries.
Their food was plain. Their breath came from deep inside them.
They didn’t cling to life, weren’t anxious about death.

They emerged without desire and reentered without resistance.
They came easily; they went easily. They didn’t forget where they were from;
they didn’t ask where they were going. ...[text shortened]... th without fear.
They accepted life as a gift, and they handed it back gratefully,

~ Chuang-tzu

You cannot describe it or draw it,
You cannot praise it enough or perceive it.
No place can be found in which
To put the Original Face;
It will not disappear even
When the universe is destroyed.

~ Mumon (13th c.)

The Way is arrived at by enlightenment.
The first priority is to establish resolve.
It is no small matter to step directly
From the bondage of the ordinary person
Into transcendent experience of the realm of sages.

It requires that your mind
Be firm as steel to cut off
The flow of birth and death,
Accept your original real nature,
Not see anything at all as
Existing inside or outside yourself,
So all actions and endeavors emerge from the fundamental.

~ Yuanwu

One instant is eternity;
When you see through this one instant,
You see through the one who sees.

~Wu-men (1183-1260)

The essential point in learning Zen is to make the roots deep and the stem firm.
Twenty-four hours a day, be aware of where you are and what you do.

When no thoughts have arisen,
and nothing at all is on your mind,
you merge with the boundless and become wholly empty and still.
Then your actions are not interrupted by doubt and hesitation.

This is called the fundamental matter right at hand.
As soon as you produce any opinion or interpretation,
and want to attain Zen and be a master,
you have already fallen into psychological and material realms

You have become trapped by ordinary senses and perceptions,
by ideas of gain and loss, by ideas of right and wrong.
Half drunk and half sober, you cannot manage effectively.

~ Yuanwu

It is all pervading, spotless beauty;
It is the self-existence and uncreated Absolute
Then how can it even be a matter
Of discussion that the real Buddha
Has no mouth and preaches no dharma,
Or that real hearing requires no ears,
For who could hear it?
Ah, it is a jewel beyond all price.

~ Huang-po (d. 850)