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

Observe the reality as it is, not as you wish it to be.

The challenge in meditation is not to eliminate thinking but to understand the nature of thought itself.

Our task is not to seek for love but to find all the barriers within ourselves that we have built against it.

Forgiveness is not a moral issue. It's a power issue. When we hold onto grievance and resentment, we are giving our power away.

Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.

The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of all kinds.

Suffering comes from our resistance to what is. Peace comes from our acceptance of what is.

The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought.

Zen proposes its solution by directly appealing to facts of personal experience and not to book-knowledge.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

Those who know emptiness, know impermanence. Those who know impermanence, know non-self. Those who know non-self, know peace.

Past thoughts are traceless, clear, and empty. Future thoughts are unborn and fresh. The present moment abides naturally and unconstructed.

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

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

The practice is like peeling an onion. Layer after layer of delusion is removed through continuous mindfulness.

The essence of the spiritual journey is the uncovering of what is always already present.

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

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

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.

The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.

All that appears and exists, all of samsara and nirvana, has one ground, two paths, and two results. This is the magical display of awareness and unawareness.

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

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

The goal of Buddhist practice is not to escape from the world but to transform our relationship with it.

When you understand that all phenomena are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self, attachment naturally falls away.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

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

Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.