Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.

~Walt Whitman

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You can't seem to stop your mind from racing around everywhere seeking something. That's why the Patriach said, "Hopeless fellows - using their heads to look for their heads!" You must right now turn you light around and shine it on yourselves, not go seeking somewhere else. Then you will understand that in body and mind you are no different than the patriachs and Buddhas, and that there is nothing to do.

At this moment is there anything lacking?

Nirvana is right here now before our eyes.

This place is the lotus land.

This body now is the Buddha.

One day Mara, the Evil One, was travelling through the villages of India with his attendants. he saw a man doing walking meditation whose face was lit up on wonder. The man had just discovered something on the ground in front of him.

Mara's attendant asked what that was and Mara replied, "A piece of truth." "Doesn't this bother you when someone finds a piece of truth, O Evil One?" his attendant asked. "No," Mara replied. "Right after this, they usually make a belief out of it."

From 108 Treasures for the Heart: A Guide for Daily Living by Benny Liow