Meditation is not about stopping thoughts, but recognizing that we are not our thoughts.

Each of you is perfect the way you are... and you can use a little improvement.

Peace in oneself, peace in the world.

Personal experience is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience.

The cultivation of loving-kindness is the thread that runs through all Buddhist teachings.

Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.

To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.

The root of all suffering is ignorance. The antidote to ignorance is wisdom that realizes emptiness.

The door of your heart can only be opened from the inside.

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.

Concentration and insight are like two wings of a bird: both are necessary for the flight to liberation.

Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher.

The six realms of existence are like a dream, why build a prison for yourself?

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

Awareness is the basis, or what you might call the "support," of the mind. It is steady and unchanging, like the pole to which the flag of ordinary consciousness is attached.

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

The nature of all things is like a magical illusion, a mirage, a dream, a reflection of the moon in water.

The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.

Freedom is not found in the absence of difficulty, but in our relationship to it.

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

The object of meditation and the mind which knows it must be noted as they occur. If they are not noted, desire arises and disturbs concentration.

The goal of meditation is not to reach some highest place, but to remain in the place where you already are.

If you want to know your past life, look at your present condition. If you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.

The whole path of mindfulness is about letting go. We let go of our attachment to our views, our attachment to our opinions, our attachment to our ideas.

Life is nothing but a continuous chain of sensations. Pleasant or unpleasant, observe them objectively.

Panic, anxiety, and stress are not obstacles to the practice. They are the path to wisdom and compassion.

Try to be mindful and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become still in any surroundings, like a clear forest pool.

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.

The Buddha's teaching is a middle way between all extremes, between eternalism and annihilationism, between self-indulgence and self-torture.

The supreme path is not to fabricate anything. The supreme meditation is not to be distracted.

The root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have.