When you understand that all phenomena are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self, attachment naturally falls away.

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.

When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

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

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

The difference between being caught in thoughts and being mindful of thoughts is like the difference between being in a movie and watching a movie.

All that appears and exists, all of samsara and nirvana, has one ground, two paths, and two results. This is the magical display of awareness and unawareness.

The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

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.

The nature of mind is not something we need to achieve - it's something we need to recognize.

The mind is like a well-forged sword - it adapts to all situations.

Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Every being has the potential of becoming a Buddha. Our true nature is Buddha nature.

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

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

The practice of vipassana is the study of the self. When you study physical and mental phenomena, you are studying the truth about yourself.

The problem is not the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem.

Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.

A pure mind is always full of love - real love for all others.

Genuine happiness comes from having developed basic human qualities, such as attention, emotional balance, and generosity.

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

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

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

If you want to understand suffering, you must look into the situation at hand. The teachings say that wherever a problem arises it must be settled right there.

The everyday practice is simply to develop complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions.

Trees, mountains, and vines all exist in nature according to their own truth. They are born and die following their nature. They remain this way because that's what they are. They don't practice meditation or do anything special.

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

The mind is like water. When it's turbulent, it's difficult to see. When it's calm, everything becomes clear.

If you see certainty in that which is uncertain, you are bound to suffer.

If you want to know your past life, look at your present condition. If you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.

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

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

The truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act, not merely to reflect.

When you recognize that pain and suffering are impermanent, you become free.

The only things that are truly mine are my actions and their results.

The path to liberation requires both individual effort and the support of the spiritual community.

The secret of happiness is to want what you already have.

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

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

If you want to find peace, then look at that point where you find you're dissatisfied and investigate what's really going on.

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

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

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

The restraint of the senses is not a matter of suppression but of wise attention to our experience.

When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight.

A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure.

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

The snow lion stays in the mountains, and the snow lion's ways are the snow lion's ways.

To understand everything is to forgive everything.

The more you give, the more you have. That's the economics of kindness.

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.

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

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.

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

When I run from suffering, it follows me. When I face suffering with equanimity, it runs from me.

Wisdom and compassion must be developed equally and harmoniously.

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