Meditation is not about escaping from difficulty but about meeting it with awareness.

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

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

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

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind.

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

When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions.

We deal with our mind from morning until evening, and it can be our best friend or our worst enemy.

The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

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

Silence is so much more productive of wisdom and clarity than thinking.

The Buddha's teaching is a teaching of self-reliance, of being one's own master, one's own refuge.

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.

The yogi's joy is in the solitude of mountains, where all distractions naturally dissolve into emptiness.

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

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

The master's introduction is direct recognition of one's own nature. Meditation is maintaining the continuity of this recognition.

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

The cave I live in is empty and so is my mind. I live simply and at ease.

In the moment of love, awareness is very strong. Use that awareness, that strength of consciousness, to look into yourself.

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.

As surely as there is a voyage away, there is a journey home.

The moment you note a thought, it disappears. The noting mind keeps the hindrances away.

Every experience is an opportunity to practice awareness.

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.

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

The highest truth cannot be taught except through the conventional truth.

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

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

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

Like a fine flower, beautiful to look at but without scent, fine words are fruitless in a man who does not act in accordance with them.

Every thought, every word, and every action leaves an imprint on our mind.

The teaching is simple: act with kindness and compassion. If you cannot do this, at least try not to harm others.

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.

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

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

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

The path to liberation requires both understanding and practice, both pariyatti and patipatti.

Faith is the firm foundation, diligence the supporting pillar, and wisdom the roof of the house of practice.

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

In meditation, we're not trying to get rid of thoughts but to recognize their true nature.

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

The highest mantra is to be without deception. The highest medicine is to have few desires. The highest meditation is not to be attached.

Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.

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

The more precisely you note, the more clearly you understand. The more clearly you understand, the stronger your insight becomes.

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

The trouble is, you think you have time.

Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.

Let none find fault with others; let none see the omissions and commissions of others. But let one see one's own acts, done and undone.

Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.

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.

Time passes unhindered. When we make ourselves better, we make the world better.

Every moment of mindfulness is a step on the path to liberation. Each step is valuable, no matter how small.

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

Not by hatred is hatred conquered, but by love alone. This is an eternal law.

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

Rather than letting our negativity get the better of us, we could acknowledge that right now we feel like a piece of shit and not be squeamish about taking a good look.

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