"The midpoint between sense desire and aversion is equanimity, a state of mind that is evenly balanced. It's fully engaged with experience, but it neither favors nor opposes what is happening. We are aware of what is arising and passing away without any inclination to change it into something else. When this equanimity is coupled with a mind that is both tranquil and alert, we have found the still center of the mind. "

Untangling self

"As practice matures, we reach a stage of perfect equanimity, where all the factors of enlightenment ripen. At this time, there are no cravings or yearnings, even for the next breath or the next moment of experience. There is not the slightest impulse toward either becoming or not becoming. As the mind settles into this perfect balance of noncraving, the flow of consciousness conditioned by changing objects suddenly stops. The mind then opens to and alights upon nibbana, the unconditioned, the unborn."

The end of suffering - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review - Winter 2013

"The person is a product of the mind, not the other way around, and the incessant mind chatter has to be maintained for the person to believe he or she is outside looking in. We know ourselves only by making mental noise, and if the mind gets quiet, this false dichotomy of "me" separate from "my" mental experience cannot be maintained.

The concept of "I" is another thought coming from the mind.

When we actually look inwardly with awareness to see this "I", we see only thought, emotion, and memory. There is no entity apart from these thoughts.

The thoughts of the brain and the sense of I are one and the same thing.

Over time these mental functions assumed themselves to be a person.

The person who was just created out of thought now became the person outside of the brain having the thought."

Awakening: a paradigm shift of the heart - p. 43-45

"When you look for the mind, the only thing you can find is awareness. The mind is nothing more than that. 

The nature of the mind is nothing but awareness-emptiness."

Confusion Arises as Wisdom - p. 72-73

"The mind is a succession of thoughts and emotions, instant by instant."

Confusion Arises as Wisdom - p. 65

"The mind's nature is emptiness.

We think we're experiencing something external that is pleasant or unpleasant. Actually, it is only our mind. What we experience is not out there; our experience is merely a display of our mind.

Thoughts are just displays of the mind, and they do not harm the mind."

Confusion Arises as Wisdom - p. 47

"When you look for the mind and examine introspectively, you cannot find it. We could call the inability to find anything 'emptiness'. What emptiness means is that there is nothing graspable. "

Confusion Arises as Wisdom - p. 46

The Mind of Absolute Trust
(translated by Robert F. Olson)


The Great Way isn’t difficult
for those who are unattached to their preferences.
Let go of longing and aversion,
and everything will be perfectly clear.

When you cling to a hairbreadth of distinction,
heaven and earth are set apart.
If you want to realize the truth,
don’t be for or against.

The struggle between good and evil
is the primal disease of the mind.
Not grasping the deeper meaning,
you just trouble your mind’s serenity.

As vast as infinite space,
it is perfect and lacks nothing.
But because you select and reject,
you can’t perceive its true nature.

Don’t get entangled in the world;
don’t lose yourself in emptiness.
Be at peace in the oneness of things,
and all errors will disappear by themselves.

If you don’t live the Tao,
you fall into assertion or denial.
Asserting that the world is real,
you are blind to its deeper reality;
denying that the world is real,
you are blind to the selflessness of all things.

The more you think about these matters,
the farther you are from the truth.
Step aside from all thinking,
and there is nowhere you can’t go.
Returning to the root, you find the meaning;
chasing appearances, you lose their source.

At the moment of profound insight,
you transcend both appearance and emptiness.
Don’t keep searching for the truth;
just let go of your opinions.

For the mind in harmony with the Tao,
all selfishness disappears.
With not even a trace of self-doubt,
you can trust the universe completely.
All at once you are free,
with nothing left to hold on to.
All is empty, brilliant,
perfect in its own being.

In the world of things as they are,
there is no self, no non-self.
If you want to describe its essence,
the best you can say is “Not-two.”

For the mind in harmony with the Tao,
all selfishness disappears.
With not even a trace of self-doubt,
you can trust the universe completely.

In this “Not-two” nothing is separate,
and nothing in the world is excluded.
The enlightened of all times and places
have entered into this truth.

In it there is no gain or loss;
one instant is ten thousand years.
There is no here, no there;
infinity is right before your eyes.

The tiny is as large as the vast
when objective boundaries have vanished;
the vast is as small as the tiny,
when you don’t have external limits.

Being is an aspect of non-being;
non-being is no different from being.
Until you understand this truth,
you won’t see anything clearly.
One is all; all are one. When
you realize this, what reason for holiness or wisdom?

The mind of absolute trust
is beyond all thought, all striving,
is perfectly at peace; for in it
there is no yesterday,
no tomorrow,
no today.

"When our mind works freely without any hindrance, and is at liberty to come or to go, we attain liberation." Such a mind "is everywhere present, yet it sticks nowhere."

The world is made of stories - p. 90

"Let your mind come forth without fixing it anywhere."

The world is made of stories - p. 90

"A mente está em todos os lugares, em todos os momentos, sem nenhuma exceção.

A mente é nossa natureza fundamental, nossa natureza búdica."

Budismo: significados profundos - p. 120

"The point is to leave the mental realm, where most of our unhappiness takes root and grows, and enter into the nonconceptual experience of the present moment, which is purely physical."

Beyond happiness

"It is the nature of our unawakened minds to be bothered about something."

Money, sex, war, karma

"Buddhism in its final summation is about abiding in the Now, and buddhist practice encourages and cultivates skillful states of mind to make that entry easier. It is a straightforward process of surrendering that occurs when the mind is calm, serene and equanimous, because those states arise from a lack of mental resistance and bring the person of awareness closer to Now."

Stepping out of self-deception - p. 215

"Spiritual practice is discerning the difference between the absolute reality and the mind's imposed reality."

Stepping out of self-deception - p. 183

"The mind attempts to assume spiritual authority over the heart. The leadership of the "I" makes a compelling case as it measures what it has, figures out what it needs, sets down an agenda, and progresses toward its goal. It knows exactly where it is going, what it still lacks, and how to achieve the desired result, all in quantifiable terms. But if the mind has never been where it is going, how could it possibly have any idea how to get there, or even what "getting there" looks like? The mind has a blueprint for its salvation but all its maps are in abstract form, and over time we give less and less credibility to anything but the wisdom derived from direct experience."

Stepping out of self-deception - p. 168

"We" do not have a mind. The mind has created the sense of "you" and "me" from the way it perceives reality. "We" are a part of the mental processing of the mind. The thoughts of the mind and the sense-of-I are not two separate events. We exist only because the mind thinks us into creation.

Stepping out of self-deception - p. 166

"The presence of the watcher indicates that awareness is now looking at the mind rather than through the mind.

The fact that awareness can be an objective observer of the mind means it is not a mental process and therefore does not originate from the mind."

Stepping out of self-deception - p. 160

"Thought holds an alternative to what is. Thought says, "This doesn't have to be this way, other possibilities would improve this situation." Thinking forms a horizontal view that is constructed from the endless choices conceived by the mind, and we invest in the truth of those possibilities as a way out of Now. But reality does not hold a substitute for Now; there is only what is. In order to surrender, we have to see the choices offered by thought as pure fabrication. When we perceive the unreality of thought, the view and sense-of-self constructed from these thoughts end. Surrender is the collapsing of alternatives into reality."

Stepping out of self-deception - p. 126

"The point is to abide with the reality of here and now without mental influences."

Stepping out of self-deception - p. 116