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.

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.

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

The movement of love is what creates the beauty in our lives.

Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

Just observe whatever arises. Don't try to create anything, and don't reject anything.

Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.

Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.

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

The challenge in meditation is not to eliminate thinking but to understand the nature of thought itself.

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

Knowledge must be stabilized by meditation. Without meditation, knowledge is like a child in battle.

Concentration is a cornerstone of mindfulness practice. Your mindfulness will only be as robust as your capacity to ground your attention in the present moment.

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

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.

The real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

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

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

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

The practice is simply this: keep coming back to your breath during the day. This will give your mind a steadiness and your life a balance.

The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease.

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

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

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

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.

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

Mind training is based on the idea that two opposite mental factors cannot happen at the same time.

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

If you want to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be miserable, expect something in return.

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

Compassion is the radicalism of our time.

The perfect moment is this one, not the one you're waiting for.

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

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

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

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

The true path is not difficult; just avoid picking and choosing.

Every moment of mindfulness is a step on the path to liberation. Each step is valuable, no matter how small.

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

The Buddha's teaching is a middle way between all extremes, between eternalism and annihilationism, between self-indulgence and self-torture.

The moment you note a thought, it disappears. The noting mind keeps the hindrances away.

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.

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

Our true nature is like a diamond - pure, brilliant, and indestructible. No matter how much dirt covers it, its essential nature remains unchanged.

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

The dharma wheel turns from the beginning. There is neither excess nor deficiency. The whole universe is moistened with nectar, and the truth is ready to harvest.

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

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

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

Wisdom is not about accumulating knowledge, but about seeing through all knowledge.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

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

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring wood: all these I do in Zen.

Compassion is not mere sentiment but a powerful force that can transform both ourselves and others.

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

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

The dharma is not outside of you. Looking for it elsewhere is like placing a Buddha on your head while searching for him everywhere else.

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