The water in the ocean can be rough or calm. It can be clear or murky. But the water itself doesn't mind.

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

The mind is like a room with many windows. Open them all and let the fresh air in.

Vipassana is the art of living. Not the art of escaping.

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

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

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

Misery ceases to exist when we stop reacting to sensations.

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.

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

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

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

To live is enough.

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

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

The teaching of the Buddha is based on two truths: conventional truth and ultimate truth. Without understanding the relationship between these two, the deeper meaning of the Buddha's teaching cannot be understood.

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

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

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

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

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

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

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

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

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.

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.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

The practice is like peeling an onion. Layer after layer of delusion is removed through continuous mindfulness.

Every moment of confusion is also a moment of wisdom, if we can learn to recognize it.

Zen is not necessarily against words, but it is well aware of their limitations.

Change is the nature of every phenomenon. Accept this truth and you will live a happy life.

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

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

Neither from itself nor from another, nor from both, nor without a cause, does anything whatever, anywhere arise.

The law of nature is the law of cause and effect. As you sow, so shall you reap.

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

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

Like a fine flower, beautiful to look at but without scent, fine words are fruitless in a man who does not act in accordance with them.

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

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

The root of suffering is attachment.

The entire path is a path of self-responsibility. Nobody else can walk it for you.

The Buddha's teaching is not a philosophical system but a practical guide to living.

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

The development of insight is gradual, but the realization of truth is sudden.

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

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

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

Real peace comes from seeing things as they really are, not as we want them to be.

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

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

You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.

True peace is found not in the absence of experience but in the clear seeing of all experience.

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

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.

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

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

The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

Our own life has to be our message.