Life is an art, and like perfect art it should be self-forgetting.

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

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

Face your own anger and you will be free from anger. Face your own fears and you will be free from fear.

My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra. My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantabhadri. I belong to the caste of non-duality of these two.

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

The treasure house within you contains everything, and you are free to use it. You don't need to seek outside.

When concentration is developed, wisdom arises. When wisdom arises, one becomes disenchanted with the five aggregates.

The true mark of a spiritual practitioner is that your own behavior is better, not that you can criticize others well.

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

Hasten slowly and you will soon arrive.

The mind is everything. What you think, you become.

The purpose of life is to be happy, to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is not to be well known, cited, or powerful.

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

You are the master of your own mind. You can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

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

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

Altruism is not a luxury, it is a necessity for the survival of humanity.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.

The person who clings to nothing of the past, present and future, who has no attachment and no aversion, has no conceptual imprints.

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

In the beginning, nothing comes, in the middle nothing stays, in the end nothing goes.

The highest mantra is to be without deception. The highest medicine is to have few desires. The highest meditation is not to be attached.

For whom emptiness is possible, everything is possible. For whom emptiness is not possible, nothing is possible.

The essence of the spiritual journey is the uncovering of what is always already present.

Be happy at the moment, that's enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.

The essence of Buddhist practice is to reduce our selfishness and to work for the benefit of others.

There is no difference at all between samsara and nirvana. There is no difference at all between nirvana and samsara.

The present moment is the only moment available to us, and it is the door to all moments.

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

Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.

Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.

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

Mindfulness is being aware of what's going on, not trying to control what's going on.

When you note pain, you are not trying to make it go away. You are trying to understand its true nature.

Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.

When we recognize that our thoughts are just thoughts, we can choose whether or not to follow them.

Each decision we make, each action we take, is born out of an intention.

Silence is sometimes the best answer.

True freedom is not the absence of commitment but the presence of choice.

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.

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

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.

In the gap between thoughts, nonconceptual wisdom shines continuously.

Mindfulness means keeping one's consciousness alive to the present reality.

Look at situations from all angles, and you will become more open.

Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts.

When you let go of trying to control everything, you can relax and enjoy life.

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

The key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion.

In my youth I studied, in my prime I practiced, now all my doubts are cleared.

Every step on the path must be with the understanding of anicca - impermanence. This is the essence of the teaching.

Freedom is not found in the absence of difficulty, but in our relationship to it.

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

Since all things are empty of inherent existence, anything is possible. If things had inherent existence, nothing would be possible.

The more you understand impermanence, the more you appreciate every moment.

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.