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

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

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

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

Buddhist practice is not to eliminate life's problems but to grow with them patiently and with compassion.

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

A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.

If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.

The essence of meditation is not something complicated or exotic. It is simply taking a break from our habitual patterns.

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

Mindfulness is attention to life, and life itself is sacred.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

Change is possible because there is nothing inherently permanent about our disturbing emotions.

The more we understand the nature of our mind, the more we understand the nature of our world.

The real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

Although all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they function perfectly well.

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

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.

The most important factor in achieving happiness is the mind. Happiness and suffering are mental states and therefore depend on the mind.

Don't be afraid of the future. The future is good.

Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what's happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what's happening.

To see directly is to be free of hope and fear. Hope and fear are like a cloud before the sun.

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.

Study the Buddha's teaching which is present in every moment.

The nature of mind is clearer than the sky, yet we keep looking elsewhere.

The more clearly you see the arising and passing of phenomena, the less you will be attached to them.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

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

Kindness is the solution to all of life's problems.

Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.

All worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death.

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

The purpose of meditation is not to create a new state of mind, but to recognize what is already present.

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

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

The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.

Those who understand interdependent origination understand suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

The lamp of wisdom burns constantly, illuminating the nature of mind.

Not by hatred is hatred conquered, but by love alone. This is an eternal law.

The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.

Knowledge must be stabilized by meditation. Without meditation, knowledge is like a child in battle.

When we understand that peace is not dependent on external conditions, we can find it in the midst of any circumstance.

Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves.

The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life.

The difference between buddhas and sentient beings is that buddhas recognize their nature while sentient beings fail to recognize it.

When we attempt to exercise power or control over someone else, we cannot avoid giving that person the very same power or control over us.

Real freedom is not about controlling our experience, but about being free within our experience.

The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.

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

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

The practice of patience guards us against losing our presence of mind.

The key to transformation is not to fight with our experience but to open to it with awareness.

Sankharas are the seeds of consciousness that manifest as sensations. By observing sensations equanimously, we stop creating new sankharas.

Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.

When dharma fills your body and mind, you realize that something is missing.

To understand everything is to forgive everything.

Our basic nature is pure awareness that simply cognizes experience. Everything else is temporary and adventitious.

Misery ceases to exist when we stop reacting to sensations.

Enlightenment is not the end of change but the end of resistance to change.