Mindfulness is not just bare attention but wise attention that leads to understanding and insight.

The root of happiness is altruism — the wish to be of service to others.

Happiness is a skill that can be developed like playing an instrument or learning to read.

Sleep is the best meditation.

Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

Faith is not a commodity that you either have or don't have - it is an inner quality that unfolds as we learn to trust our own deepest experience.

Those who cling to perceptions and views wander the world offending people.

The practice of vipassana is the study of the self. When you study physical and mental phenomena, you are studying the truth about yourself.

As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

Every thought, every word, and every action leaves an imprint on our mind.

In meditation, we are continuously discovering who and what we are.

The only way to experience truth is to look within, to observe oneself.

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

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

The essence of the teaching is emptiness and compassion. Without emptiness, compassion can become attachment. Without compassion, emptiness can become cold and distant.

Love is the wish that others be happy, and compassion is the wish that they be free from suffering.

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure.

True happiness is born of letting go of what is unnecessary.

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

The purpose of life is to be happy, to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is not to be well known, cited, or powerful.

Be a lamp unto yourself. Work out your liberation with diligence.

When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

When dharma fills your body and mind, you realize that something is missing.

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce.

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

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

Don't be a bodhisatta; don't be an arahant; don't be anything at all. Being something makes you suffer.

There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind.

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring wood: all these I do in Zen.

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind.

The ocean does not reject any water; therefore it is great. The mountain does not select its stones; therefore it is great.