The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy. This is the goal of Buddhist practice.

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

Compassion is a verb.

Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.

Meditation is not about trying to change your experience; it's about changing your relationship to your experience.

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.

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

The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull's-eye which confronts him. This state of unconsciousness is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill.

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

The Dhamma unfolds in accordance with a definite sequence: faith, virtue, learning, generosity, wisdom, and insight.

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

The practice of meditation requires both energy and patience, both effort and relaxation.

The path is the goal. Every step of the journey is the journey.

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

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

The purpose of meditation is not to create a new state of mind, but to recognize what is already present.

The goal of meditation is not to reach some highest place, but to remain in the place where you already are.

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

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

True peace comes not from controlling the world, but from letting go of control.

A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.

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

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

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

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

Compassion is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength.

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

Though the view should be as vast as the sky, keep your conduct as fine as barley flour.

Mindfulness is the gentle effort to be continuously present with experience.

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

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

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.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

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

The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal.

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

Self-awareness is the key to freedom. The more we understand ourselves, the more we understand how to be free.

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

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.

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.

Faith is not a commodity that you either have or don't have - it is an inner quality that unfolds as we learn to trust our own deepest experience.

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

The Buddha's path is not about becoming somebody different but about becoming more and more who you really are.

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

The measure of success in spiritual life is how peaceful you are.

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

The more we witness our emotional reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain.

The essence of Buddhism is not a belief system but a systematic investigation of our experience.

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

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

In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.

Mindfulness is the quality and power of mind that is aware of what's happening—without judgment and without interference.

The force of the kindness of others is so strong, we can't possibly measure it.

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

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

Meditation is not an escape from reality but a way to understand reality as it truly is.

The dharma is not in the books. If you want to find the dharma, look in your mind.

Our emotions are like waves in the ocean. We can't stop the waves, but we can learn to surf.

Smile, breathe, and go slowly.

Metta (loving-kindness) becomes truly effective only when it arises from a peaceful mind, a pure mind, a balanced mind.