True happiness is born of letting go of what is unnecessary.

Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.

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

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

True peace comes not from controlling the world, but from letting go of control.

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

To understand everything is to forgive everything.

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

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

It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.

The perfect moment is this one, not the one you're waiting for.

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

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

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

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

The ultimate revolution is the spiritual revolution, where we learn to see reality as it truly is.

The practice of meditation is not about achieving states of bliss but about seeing things as they really are.

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

The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought.

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

Awareness is the basis, or what you might call the "support," of the mind. It is steady and unchanging, like the pole to which the flag of ordinary consciousness is attached.

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

Mindfulness is the key to the present moment. Without it we cannot see the world clearly, and we cannot make the wisest choices in our lives.

The way we look at the world is the way the world looks.

Time passes unhindered. When we make mistakes, we cannot turn the clock back and try again. All we can do is use the present well.

The past is gone, the future is not yet here. Live in the present moment with awareness.

The door of your heart can only be opened from the inside.

The more you understand, the more you love; the more you love, the more you understand.

By understanding emptiness, one understands all phenomena. Without understanding emptiness, one understands nothing.

Misery ceases to exist when we stop reacting to sensations.

Only one book is worth reading: the heart.

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

The precious pot containing my riches becomes my teacher in the very moment it breaks.

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

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.

Work diligently. Diligently. Work patiently and persistently. Patiently and persistently. And you're bound to be successful. Bound to be successful.

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

The knowledge of dissolution comes when you see both the noting mind and noted object dissolving together.

Karma is not fate but the law of moral causation, showing us that we are the architects of our own destiny.

The three characteristics - impermanence, suffering, and non-self - are not philosophical concepts but aspects of experience to be directly observed.

In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.

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

Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: you won't be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.

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

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

Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future.

We can learn the art of fierce compassion - redefining strength, deconstructing isolation and renewing a sense of community, practicing letting go of rigid us-vs.-them thinking.

Silence is so much more productive of wisdom and clarity than thinking.

The true person is not anyone in particular. But like the deep blue color of the limitless sky, it is everyone, everywhere in the world.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way.

Suffering is not the end of the story; it is the middle of the story.

True freedom is a freedom from the tyranny of our own thoughts and afflictive emotions.

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.