The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy. This is the goal of Buddhist practice.

My religion is to live and die without regret.

Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.

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

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

Faith is the firm foundation, diligence the supporting pillar, and wisdom the roof of the house of practice.

The nature of life is change. The nature of change is painful. The nature of pain is temporary.

The Buddha's teaching is not about belief but about investigation, not about accepting but about examining.

We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

When we see the nature of the mind, we see that we are not our thoughts.

Enlightenment is the realization that we were never really separate from one another or from all of life.

Because you are alive, everything is possible.

The mind is intrinsically empty. It's empty of all that we perceive as being intrinsically "me" and "mine."

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.

The most important thing in life is to know death is coming and to prepare for it.

The superior person is like water, bringing benefit to all without competing.

The only thing that we truly have control over is our attitude toward experience.

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

The spiritual journey begins with the recognition that beneath our surface happiness there lies a deep inner pain.

Equanimity is not indifference. It is the balanced mind that sees things clearly without reaction.

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

To see the truth, do not be for or against. The struggle between for and against is the mind's worst disease.

In the spring, hundreds of flowers; in autumn, a harvest moon; in the summer, a refreshing breeze; in winter, snow will accompany you. If useless things do not hang in your mind, any season is a good season for you.

No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.

The past is just a memory. The future is just a dream. Be here now.

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

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 secret of happiness lies not in getting what we want, but in learning to want what we already have.

To live is enough.

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

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

The root of happiness is altruism — the wish to be of service to others.

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

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

Compassion is not mere sentiment but a powerful force that can transform both ourselves and others.

When the mind is ready to understand, the truth will come to meet it.

Don't think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. If you do think this way, then quickly change your thinking.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

When you love someone, you have to have trust and confidence. Love without trust is not yet love.

The Buddha's teaching is not a philosophy or a religion; it is a method of practice.

Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead, it's about becoming more fully human.

Wisdom is not something we have to strive to acquire. Rather, wisdom arises naturally as we open our hearts to the truth of what is.

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

The mind that sees its own nature becomes free from all extremes.

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

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

Anxiety and excitement are the same emotion. The only difference is our attitude toward the experience.

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel.

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

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 purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.

When we know the truth, we become people who don't have to think much, we become people with wisdom.

Happiness is a skill that can be developed like playing an instrument or learning to read.

The purpose of a spiritual discipline is to give us a way to stop the war, not by our force of will, but through understanding and through letting go.

Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been any different.

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another.

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

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

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