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

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

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.

Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.

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

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

The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes.

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.

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

Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty. We can't simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment.

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

The Buddha taught that wealth does not bring happiness and security. The pursuit of wealth is a matter of living in balance.

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.

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

When walking, just walk. When sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.

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

Better to have one moment of genuine meditation than to perform religious activities for a thousand years.

The most important thing in life is to know death is coming and to prepare for it.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.

Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.

Personal experience is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience.

Silence is so much more productive of wisdom and clarity than thinking.

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.

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

When we are mindful, deeply in touch with the present moment, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to be filled with acceptance, joy, peace and love.

Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future.

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

In the monastery of your body, the monk of your mind must stay in retreat.

Every experience is an opportunity to practice awareness.

If you want to climb a mountain, begin at the top.

You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.

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.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

The yogi's joy is in the solitude of mountains, where all distractions naturally dissolve into emptiness.

If you love someone, the greatest gift you can give them is your presence.

The spiritual journey begins with the recognition that beneath our surface happiness there lies a deep inner pain.

Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been any different.

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

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

Your mind is like a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds.

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

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

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

The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.

The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.

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

The role of Zen is neither to stand above life nor to run away from it, but to face it with a spirit of determination.

We deal with our mind from morning until evening, and it can be our best friend or our worst enemy.

We can learn the art of fierce compassion - redefining strength, deconstructing isolation and renewing a sense of community, practicing letting go of rigid us-vs.-them thinking.

The truth of suffering is not to be feared but to be understood through direct observation.

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

Meditation is like catching a fish. If you try to catch it quickly, you'll miss it. If you have patience and know how to wait, the fish will come.

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