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

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another – and ourselves.

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

To be attached to a thing means that mind and the thing meet and grow into each other.

Forgiveness is giving up all hope for a better past.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

Dependent origination is not a theory about the origin of the world but a teaching that shows how suffering originates in dependence on our own mental processes.

True happiness is not found through the multiplication of desires but through their simplification.

Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.

Without darkness, there is no light. Without the path, there is no arrival.

The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment.

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

Our true nature is like a diamond - pure, brilliant, and indestructible. No matter how much dirt covers it, its essential nature remains unchanged.

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.

Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

Panic is a gateway to wisdom. When we learn to stay present with our panic, it becomes our teacher.

There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.

We need the courage to learn from our experience and the wisdom to be willing to change and grow.

Insight knowledge comes from direct experience, not from intellectual understanding.

If I had any position, I would thereby have a flaw. But since I have no position, I alone am without flaw.

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce.

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.

Right View is not just a matter of intellectual understanding but of seeing things as they really are.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

Panic, anxiety, and stress are not obstacles to the practice. They are the path to wisdom and compassion.

Each moment of clear seeing is a moment of freedom from the illusion of permanence, satisfaction, and self.

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

The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.

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

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.

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

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.

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

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

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

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

The best way to solve a problem is to help someone else solve their problem.

The spiritual journey is not about heaven and finally getting to a place that's really swell.

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

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

Compassion is not just about being kind to others. It's about being kind to ourselves as well.

Recognize the emptiness of all phenomena, but do not become attached to emptiness itself.

Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good.

My religion is to live and die without regret.

Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.

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

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

Real happiness comes from having an unshakable connection to the deep wellspring of peace and happiness that is not dependent on external conditions.

Zen is a way of life, not a theory or a piece of knowledge to be stored away in our minds.

Craving and aversion are the roots of suffering. Observe them with equanimity.

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

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

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

Many people think excitement is happiness... But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.

The signs of practice are not in extraordinary experiences but in extraordinary awareness of ordinary experiences.

The more we understand impermanence, the more we understand that we can't hold on to anything.

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

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