When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help.

If you want to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be miserable, expect something in return.

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals.

The victorious ones have said that emptiness is the relinquishing of all views. Those who are possessed of the view of emptiness are said to be incurable.

When you note pain, you are not trying to make it go away. You are trying to understand its true nature.

The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.

The Buddha's teachings are not a religion, but a science of mind.

The everyday practice is simply to develop complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions.

The most important thing in life is to know death is coming and to prepare for it.

The essence of meditation is not something complicated or exotic. It is simply taking a break from our habitual patterns.

The signs of practice are not in extraordinary experiences but in extraordinary awareness of ordinary experiences.

In the moment of love, awareness is very strong. Use that awareness, that strength of consciousness, to look into yourself.

The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

The first step toward faith is to admit that we don't know everything.

The more you give, the more you have. That's the economics of kindness.

Nothing is permanent. Everything is subject to change. Being is always becoming.

Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.

Mind training is based on the idea that two opposite mental factors cannot happen at the same time.

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.

When we develop patience, we find that we develop a reserve of calm and tranquility.

Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back, and reasons to stay.

The Buddha's teaching is a teaching of self-reliance, of being one's own master, one's own refuge.

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.

Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.

The practice is simply this: keep coming back to your breath during the day. This will give your mind a steadiness and your life a balance.

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

Just as a mother would protect her only child with her life, even so let one cultivate a boundless love towards all beings.

Whatever is dependently co-arisen, that is explained to be emptiness. That, being a dependent designation, is itself the middle way.

The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.

Our practice cannot be perfect, but without being discouraged by this, we should continue it. This is the secret of practice.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

The path to liberation requires both individual effort and the support of the spiritual community.