Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment.

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

The root of happiness is altruism — the wish to be of service to others.

The most profound meditation is to think nothing at all.

At the bottom of great doubt lies great awakening. If you doubt fully, you will awaken fully.

Meditation is not about stopping thoughts, but recognizing that we are not our thoughts.

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

The restraint of the senses is not a matter of suppression but of wise attention to our experience.

When things fall apart and we're on the verge of we know not what, the test of each of us is to stay on that brink and not concretize.

There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.

Compassion is the radicalism of our time.

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

The practice of meditation is like tuning an instrument. Too tight, and the strings break. Too loose, and they won't play.

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 treasure house within you contains everything, and you are free to use it. You don't need to seek outside.

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

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

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.

The dharma is not about collecting more beliefs but about becoming free from the power of belief itself.

Life is nothing but a continuous chain of sensations. Pleasant or unpleasant, observe them objectively.

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

The path of practice moves from faith through understanding to direct realization.

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

The supreme path is not to fabricate anything. The supreme meditation is not to be distracted.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

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

When we look directly at our thoughts, they dissolve like bubbles in water.

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

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.

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

The ultimate purpose of Buddhism is to serve and benefit humanity.

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

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

As a flower that is lovely and beautiful, but is scentless, even so fruitless is the well-spoken word of one who does not practice it.

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

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

Each moment of mindfulness is a moment of purification.

The Buddha's teachings are not about abandoning our lives but about bringing the fullness of our attention to our lives.

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

The goal of meditation is not to achieve a blank mind, but to gain insight into the nature of mind itself.

Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.

The greatest achievement is selflessness. The greatest worth is self-mastery.

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

Meditation is the road to happiness.

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

Right practice is steady practice. Whether you feel lazy or diligent, just keep practicing.

The law of nature is the law of cause and effect. As you sow, so shall you reap.

Mindfulness is the key to transformation. It enables us to see our experience as it really is, free from distortion and bias.

The development of wisdom does not occur in isolation but requires the cultivation of the entire Noble Eightfold Path.

The heart of one who practices is like the earth. No matter what they throw on it, the earth remains unchanged.

The Dhamma is not a collection of doctrinal formulas but a path leading to direct insight into the nature of reality.

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

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

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.

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.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

Compassion is a verb.

The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.