Buddhist Practice Quotes

We need the courage to learn from our experience and the wisdom to be willing to change and grow.
Sharon Salzberg
The practice of vipassana is the study of the self. When you study physical and mental phenomena, you are studying the truth about yourself.
Mahasi Sayadaw
True peace comes not from controlling the world, but from letting go of control.
Ajahn Brahm
Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks.
Hakuin
Meditation is not about achieving anything. It's about letting go of everything.
Ajahn Brahm
The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense.
Suzuki Roshi
The only way to experience truth is to look within, to observe oneself.
S N Goenka
The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.
Hakuin
Insight knowledge comes from direct experience, not from intellectual understanding.
Mahasi Sayadaw
The movement of love is what creates the beauty in our lives.
Sharon Salzberg
When we rest in awareness, we discover a peace that is always present, regardless of circumstances.
Mingyur Rinpoche
Concentration develops naturally through continuous noting. Don't try to force concentration to arise.
Mahasi Sayadaw
The real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.
Suzuki Roshi
Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.
Hakuin
When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.
Dalai Lama
The everyday practice is simply to develop complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions.
Padmasambhava
Each moment of mindfulness is a moment of purification.
Joseph Goldstein
The four foundations of mindfulness are not separate practices but different aspects of the same practice of clear awareness.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Mindfulness is being aware of what's going on, not trying to control what's going on.
Ajahn Brahm
When mindfulness is weak, defilements are strong; when mindfulness is strong, defilements are weak.
Mahasi Sayadaw
Love is not a feeling. It's a capability.
Sharon Salzberg
Every experience is an opportunity to practice awareness.
Mingyur Rinpoche
The cultivation of loving-kindness is the thread that runs through all Buddhist teachings.
Sharon Salzberg
Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.
Ajahn Brahm
Whatever we do, we should see ourselves. Reading books doesn't show us our defilements. Watch yourself. Watch your mind.
Ajahn Chah
The truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act, not merely to reflect.
D T Suzuki
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.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The development of wisdom requires both study and practice, both learning and direct experience.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax.
Ajahn Brahm
The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal.
S N Goenka
In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived, how well we have loved, how well we have learned to let go.
Jack Kornfield
My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been any different.
Ajahn Brahm
The truth of suffering is not to be feared but to be understood through direct observation.
Mahasi Sayadaw
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.
Ajahn Chah
Let none find fault with others; let none see the omissions and commissions of others. But let one see one's own acts, done and undone.
Buddha
The first step toward faith is to admit that we don't know everything.
Sharon Salzberg
Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals.
Pema Chodron
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.
Padmasambhava
The Buddha's teaching is a teaching of self-reliance, of being one's own master, one's own refuge.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
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.
Dogen
The path is not about perfecting ourselves, but about perfecting our love.
Joseph Goldstein
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.
Sharon Salzberg
The true path is not difficult; just avoid picking and choosing.
Hakuin
Knowledge must be stabilized by meditation. Without meditation, knowledge is like a child in battle.
Padmasambhava
Meditation is not about escaping from difficulty but about meeting it with awareness.
Mingyur Rinpoche
The yogi's joy is in the solitude of mountains, where all distractions naturally dissolve into emptiness.
Milarepa
Right practice is steady practice. Whether you feel lazy or diligent, just keep practicing.
Ajahn Chah
The only thing that we truly have control over is our attitude toward experience.
Mingyur Rinpoche
The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your actions will be.
Dalai Lama
The practice of mindfulness is simply to bring awareness to what we are doing, what we are saying, and what we are thinking.
Joseph Goldstein
The Buddha's teaching is not about belief but about investigation, not about accepting but about examining.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.
D T Suzuki
The law of nature is the law of cause and effect. As you sow, so shall you reap.
S N Goenka
The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.
Buddha
The more clearly you see the arising and passing of phenomena, the less you will be attached to them.
Mahasi Sayadaw
We deal with our mind from morning until evening, and it can be our best friend or our worst enemy.
Matthieu Ricard
The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The master's introduction is direct recognition of one's own nature. Meditation is maintaining the continuity of this recognition.
Padmasambhava