Meditation is not just about sitting quietly, it's about transforming the mind.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

Should a person do good, let him do it again and again. Let him find pleasure therein, for blissful is the accumulation of good.

People who study a lot but don't practice are like a ladle in a soup pot. It's in the soup every day, but it doesn't know the taste of the soup.

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

When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.

The past is gone, the future is not yet here. Live in the present moment with awareness.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

The Buddha taught that wealth does not bring happiness and security. The pursuit of wealth is a matter of living in balance.

The development of wisdom requires both study and practice, both learning and direct experience.

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

Panic is a gateway to wisdom. When we learn to stay present with our panic, it becomes our teacher.

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

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

Though the view should be as vast as the sky, keep your conduct as fine as barley flour.

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

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

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

Better to have one moment of genuine meditation than to perform religious activities for a thousand years.

Our true nature is like a diamond - pure, brilliant, and indestructible. No matter how much dirt covers it, its essential nature remains unchanged.

Misery ceases to exist when we stop reacting to sensations.

The way to change the world is to change your own mind.

Wisdom and compassion must be developed equally and harmoniously.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.

Compassion is a verb.

External seeking only leads to exhaustion. When you imitate others, you lose your own authenticity.

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

Our own life has to be our message.

When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything.

When we rest in awareness, we discover a peace that is always present, regardless of circumstances.

The snow lion stays in the mountains, and the snow lion's ways are the snow lion's ways.

We don't set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts.

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.

Don't think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. If you do think this way, then quickly change your thinking.

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.

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

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

The practice of ethics is not about following rules but about developing inner purity and freedom.

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

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

Just observe whatever arises. Don't try to create anything, and don't reject anything.

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways - either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.

The practice of meditation is like learning to play an instrument - it takes patience, regular practice, and a gentle touch.

Meditation is like catching a fish. If you try to catch it quickly, you'll miss it. If you have patience and know how to wait, the fish will come.

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

The key to transformation is not to fight with our experience but to open to it with awareness.

In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived, how well we have loved, how well we have learned to let go.

Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good.

Each breath is a new beginning, a fresh opportunity to awaken.

The entire path is a path of self-responsibility. Nobody else can walk it for you.

Our emotions are like waves in the ocean. We can't stop the waves, but we can learn to surf.

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

The practitioner and practice are like fire and wood. The more you practice, the more you burn.

Mindfulness is attention to life, and life itself is sacred.

The role of Zen is neither to stand above life nor to run away from it, but to face it with a spirit of determination.

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.