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

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

If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.

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

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

It is never too late to turn on the light.

Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself.

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

You are the master of your own mind. You can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

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

The precious pot containing my riches becomes my teacher in the very moment it breaks.

Our defilements are like tame tigers. If you feed them, they're tame. If you stop feeding them, they'll eat you up.

Don't expect or desire anything. Just keep noting whatever arises in the present moment.

The rising and falling of the abdomen is not the main object. The main object is to develop mindfulness, concentration, and insight.

The Noble Eightfold Path is a path of training: training in ethical conduct, training in mental discipline, and training in wisdom.

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

The Noble Eightfold Path is not a path of mere intellectual understanding but a path of practice, of inner transformation.

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

The four foundations of mindfulness are not separate practices but different aspects of the same practice of clear awareness.

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

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

Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.

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

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

Instead of having a deep understanding of the teaching, we need a strong confidence in our teaching, which says that originally we have Buddha nature.

The practice of mindfulness leads naturally to concentration. Concentration leads naturally to wisdom.

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

Mindfulness means keeping one's consciousness alive to the present reality.

The signs of practice are not in extraordinary experiences but in extraordinary awareness of ordinary experiences.

The grass is greener where you water it.

Equanimity is not indifference. It is the balanced state of mind.

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

Ethical conduct is not a constraint upon our freedom but a condition of our freedom.

The dharma wheel turns from the beginning. There is neither excess nor deficiency. The whole universe is moistened with nectar, and the truth is ready to harvest.

Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.

Maintain the state of undistractedness and distractions will fly away.

The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.

Zen is a way of life, not a theory or a piece of knowledge to be stored away in our minds.

Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.

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

Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points.

The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.

Ardently do today what must be done. Who knows? Tomorrow, death comes.

The way to overcome anger is to be too busy being kind to have time to be angry.

Breathing in, there is only the present moment. Breathing out, it is a wonderful moment.

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.

Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been any different.

The way to change others' minds is with affection, and not anger.

The purpose of a spiritual discipline is to give us a way to stop the war, not by our force of will, but through understanding and through letting go.

The Buddha taught us to leave alone the things that don't lead to awakening.

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

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

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

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.

No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.

True happiness comes from a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through cultivation of altruism, of love, of compassion.

Work diligently. Diligently. Work patiently and persistently. Patiently and persistently. And you're bound to be successful. Bound to be successful.

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

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

The Dhamma unfolds in accordance with a definite sequence: faith, virtue, learning, generosity, wisdom, and insight.