When you note pain, you should not dwell on the thought, "I feel pain." Simply recognize the presence of pain.

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense.

Wisdom is not about accumulating knowledge, but about seeing through all knowledge.

We need the courage to learn from our experience and the wisdom to be willing to change and grow.

The only way to experience truth is to look within, to observe oneself.

When we are mindful, deeply in touch with the present moment, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to be filled with acceptance, joy, peace and love.

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

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

Vipassana is the art of living. Not the art of escaping.

Even if you speak of 'understanding,' this understanding is not a matter of knowledge. It is what fills the entire body and mind.

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

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.

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

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

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

The practice is not about achieving special states but about seeing ordinary experience with extraordinary clarity.

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.

Every experience is an opportunity to practice awareness.

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

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

The view is like a lion - it cannot be led around by anything else. Meditation is like an eagle - it cannot be distracted by anything else. Action is like a madman - it is free from accepting and rejecting.

May all beings be happy, be peaceful, be liberated.

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

Meditation is not an escape from life but a way to fully engage with life.

The only thing that we truly have control over is our attitude toward experience.

Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future.

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.

When mindfulness is weak, defilements are strong; when mindfulness is strong, defilements are weak.

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

The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.

Hasten slowly and you will soon arrive.

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.

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

True happiness is not found through the multiplication of desires but through their simplification.

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.

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

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

The more you give, the more you have. That's the economics of kindness.

We can learn the art of fierce compassion - redefining strength, deconstructing isolation and renewing a sense of community, practicing letting go of rigid us-vs.-them thinking.

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.

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

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. If you let go completely, you will have complete peace.

Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest.

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

The perfect moment is this one, not the one you're waiting for.

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

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

The first step toward faith is to admit that we don't know everything.

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

Compassion is a verb.

The practice of mindfulness is simply to bring awareness to what we are doing, what we are saying, and what we are thinking.

Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.

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

Equanimity is not indifference. It is the balanced mind that sees things clearly without reaction.

When we develop patience, we find that we develop a reserve of calm and tranquility.

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

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

The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?

Karma is not fate but the law of moral causation, showing us that we are the architects of our own destiny.