The way to change the world is to change your own mind.

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

If it isn't good, let it die. If it doesn't die, make it good.

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

We practice to learn how to let go, not how to increase our holding on to things.

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

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.

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.

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

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

Conquer anger with non-anger. Conquer evil with good. Conquer stinginess with giving. Conquer deceit with truth.

Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment.

The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.

Every moment of confusion is also a moment of wisdom, if we can learn to recognize it.

The practice is like peeling an onion. Layer after layer of delusion is removed through continuous mindfulness.

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

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

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

The practice of mindfulness is simply to bring awareness to what we are doing, what we are saying, and what we are thinking.

Don't try to change the world. First, change yourself.

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

The development of wisdom requires both study and practice, both learning and direct experience.

The only thing that we truly have control over is our attitude toward experience.

When you practice zazen you should not try to attain anything. You should just sit in the complete calmness of your mind and not rely on anything.

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

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

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

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

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

The noting mind and the object noted appear to occur as a pair. Through concentration they are seen to arise and vanish together.

Sensations are not your enemy. They are your teacher. Through observing them, you understand the truth of existence.

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

Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest.

Our defilements are like tame tigers. If you feed them, they're tame. If you stop feeding them, they'll eat you up.

The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your actions will be.

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

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.

Rather than letting our negativity get the better of us, we could acknowledge that right now we feel like a piece of shit and not be squeamish about taking a good look.

Happiness is a skill that can be developed like playing an instrument or learning to read.

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

It is never too late to turn on the light.

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

Observe the reality as it is, not as you wish it to be.

The Buddha taught us to leave alone the things that don't lead to awakening.

Liberation is found in the practice, not in the theory.

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

The Noble Eightfold Path is a path of training: training in ethical conduct, training in mental discipline, and training in wisdom.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

The greatest achievement is selflessness. The greatest worth is self-mastery.

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

The practice of mindfulness transforms the mind from a place of suffering into an instrument of enlightenment.

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

Don't expect or desire anything. Just keep noting whatever arises in the present moment.

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

Short moments, many times. That is the essence of meditation practice.