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

The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought.

The stages of insight unfold naturally when mindfulness is continuous. There is no need to desire them or try to make them happen.

The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.

Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.

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

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

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

When you let go of trying to control everything, you can relax and enjoy life.

The essence of Buddhist practice is to reduce our selfishness and to work for the benefit of others.

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.

Where there is great doubt, there is great awakening; small doubt, small awakening; no doubt, no awakening.

We can learn to be present with whatever is happening in our lives, and in this way, we can begin to transform our relationship to difficulty.

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

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

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

Compassion is not something we develop. It arises naturally as we see the truth of what is.

The practice of mindfulness transforms the mind from a place of suffering into an instrument of enlightenment.

The path of insight is a path of discovery, not a path of creation. We are discovering what is already there.

The problem is not the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem.

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

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

The technique of self-observation is the technique of observing the reality about oneself at the experiential level.

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.

Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.

The best way to solve a problem is to help someone else solve their problem.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

The cultivation of loving-kindness has the power to transform enmity into amity, hostility into hospitality.

The practice of mindfulness begins in the small, remote cave of your unconscious mind and blossoms with the sunlight of your conscious life.

Zen proposes its solution by directly appealing to facts of personal experience and not to book-knowledge.

The greatest obstacle to meditation is our expectation about what it should be.

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

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.

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

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

The Four Noble Truths are not mere doctrinal propositions but a framework for understanding and transforming our lives.

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

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

The practice of mindfulness is simple: whatever you experience, you observe and note it.

It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.

The great gift of meditation is that it returns us to the simplicity of our own being.

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

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

When mindfulness and concentration are strong, insight into the three characteristics naturally unfolds.

Compassion is a verb.

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

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

The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation.

The heart of the path is quite simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are.

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

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

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

There are many ways to meditate. But at the heart of them all is mindfulness.

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

The Buddha's teaching is not a philosophical system but a practical guide to living.

We practice to learn how to let go, not how to increase our holding on to things.

The goal of Buddhist practice is not to escape from the world but to transform our relationship with it.

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

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