The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your actions will be.

If you want to understand suffering, you must look into the situation at hand. The teachings say that wherever a problem arises it must be settled right there.

The Buddha's teaching is not about belief but about investigation, not about accepting but about examining.

Love is not a feeling. It's a capability.

Every step on the path must be with the understanding of anicca - impermanence. This is the essence of the teaching.

Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.

Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks.

The only way to fail at meditation is to stop doing it.

Meditation is not about trying to change ourselves. Meditation is about being aware of what is.

When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.

Anxiety and excitement are the same emotion. The only difference is our attitude toward the experience.

The development of insight is gradual, but the realization of truth is sudden.

What you are is what you have been. What you'll be is what you do now.

As long as our orientation is toward perfection or success, we will never learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find compassion.

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

Through understanding emptiness, one does not become proud of one's virtues, just as one does not become proud of building a castle in the sky.

Self-awareness is the key to freedom. The more we understand ourselves, the more we understand how to be free.

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

The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease.

Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

We can learn to be present with whatever is happening in our lives, and in this way, we can begin to transform our relationship to difficulty.

The more clearly you see the arising and passing of phenomena, the less you will be attached to them.

The practice of Buddhism is fundamentally a practice of expanding our happiness and diminishing our suffering.

The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes.

Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.

Compassion is not just about being kind to others. It's about being kind to ourselves as well.

Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.

Every sensation shares the same characteristic - arising, passing. Arising, passing. Learn to observe objectively.

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

The practice of mindfulness is simple: whatever you experience, you observe and note it.

There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way.

Concentration is a cornerstone of mindfulness practice. Your mindfulness will only be as robust as your capacity to ground your attention in the present moment.

Metta is the ability to embrace all parts of ourselves, as well as all parts of the world.

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

The practice of meditation is not about achieving states of bliss but about seeing things as they really are.

Buddhist practice is not to eliminate life's problems but to grow with them patiently and with compassion.

Right View is not just a matter of intellectual understanding but of seeing things as they really are.

In the monastery of your body, the monk of your mind must stay in retreat.

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.

The measure of success in spiritual life is how peaceful you are.

The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.

True peace comes not from controlling the world, but from letting go of control.

When mindfulness and concentration are strong, insight into the three characteristics naturally unfolds.

The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.

Generosity generates its own enthusiasm. We don't have to force ourselves to be generous; we just need to start.

Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts.

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

A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure.

Meditation is not about getting rid of thoughts; it's about changing the way we relate to them.

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

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

Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.

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.

The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal.

Mindfulness isn't difficult, we just need to remember to do it.

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another – and ourselves.

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.

Devotion is the head of meditation, as is often said. When you are inspired by some spiritual teacher, you can have a very strong connection with that person, and thereby the blessings can enter.

Do everything with a mind that lets go. Don't accept praise or gain or anything else. If you let go a little, you will have a little peace; if you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace.

Insight knowledge comes from direct experience, not from intellectual understanding.