Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals.

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

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.

Feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we're holding back.

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

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

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

Face your own anger and you will be free from anger. Face your own fears and you will be free from fear.

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

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

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.

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

The practice of vipassana is the study of the self. When you study physical and mental phenomena, you are studying the truth about yourself.

The Buddha's teaching is not a philosophy or a religion; it is a method of practice.

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

You are your own teacher. Looking for teachers can't solve your own doubts. Investigate yourself to find the truth - inside, not outside.

Meditation is not about trying to change ourselves. Meditation is about being aware of what is.

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

The key to meditation is to recognize the nature of your mind rather than trying to change it.

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

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

Every step on the path must be with the understanding of anicca - impermanence. This is the essence of the teaching.

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

The path of practice requires both faith and wisdom, both devotion and understanding.

The past is gone, the future is not yet here. Live in the present moment with awareness.

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

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.

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

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax.

The practice of patience guards us against losing our presence of mind.

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

Each moment of noting is a moment of purification, a moment of cultivating the path.

The Four Noble Truths are not merely theoretical propositions but a framework for understanding and transforming our experience.

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

Whatever we do, we should see ourselves. Reading books doesn't show us our defilements. Watch yourself. Watch your mind.

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

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you intuit dharma intimately.

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

Through understanding emptiness, one does not become proud of one's virtues, just as one does not become proud of building a castle in the sky.

Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

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

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

The mind is like a room with many windows. Open them all and let the fresh air in.

Just know what is happening in your mind - not happy or sad about it, not attached. If you suffer, see it, know it, be empty.

External seeking only leads to exhaustion. When you imitate others, you lose your own authenticity.

Compassion is a verb.

In true vipassana practice, there is no room for likes and dislikes. There is only observation.

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

In my youth I studied, in my prime I practiced, now all my doubts are cleared.

Start from where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

The obstacle is the path.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.

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

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.

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

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

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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