If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.

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

The only way to fail at meditation is to stop doing it.

Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.

Meditation is the ultimate mobile device; you can use it anywhere, anytime, unobtrusively.

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.

When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions.

Each breath is a new beginning, a fresh opportunity to awaken.

The path to liberation is a gradual path of self-discipline, self-development, and self-transformation.

Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks.

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

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

Concentration and insight are like two wings of a bird: both are necessary for the flight to liberation.

Misery ceases to exist when we stop reacting to sensations.

Like a fine flower, beautiful to look at but without scent, fine words are fruitless in a man who does not act in accordance with them.

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

Every experience is an opportunity to practice awareness.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

Should a person do good, let him do it again and again. Let him find pleasure therein, for blissful is the accumulation of good.

The practitioner and practice are like fire and wood. The more you practice, the more you burn.

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

Try to be mindful and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become still in any surroundings, like a clear forest pool.

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

The Buddha's teaching challenges us to master the art of living, to live in a way that leads to the extinction of suffering.

The practice of mindfulness is the practice of being alive in the present moment.

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

Mindfulness isn't difficult, we just need to remember to do it.

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

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

Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.

Devotion is the head of meditation, as is often said. When you are inspired by some spiritual teacher, you can have a very strong connection with that person, and thereby the blessings can enter.

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

Sticking with uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic—this is the spiritual path.

Each decision we make, each action we take, is born out of an intention.

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

The precious pot containing my riches becomes my teacher in the very moment it breaks.

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

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

Do not mistake understanding for realization, and do not mistake realization for liberation.

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

Panic, anxiety, and stress are not obstacles to the practice. They are the path to wisdom and compassion.

When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.

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

The essence of meditation is not something complicated or exotic. It is simply taking a break from our habitual patterns.

Meditation is not about achieving anything. It's about letting go of everything.

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

Radiate boundless love towards the entire world — above, below, and across — unhindered, without ill will, without enmity.

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

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.

If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.

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

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

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

Where is the place that your original face has not yet emerged?

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

You are the master of your own mind. You can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

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

Time passes unhindered. When we make ourselves better, we make the world better.

Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.