When mindfulness and concentration are strong, insight into the three characteristics naturally unfolds.

Mind training is based on the idea that two opposite mental factors cannot happen at the same time.

If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look into your present actions.

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

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

Every being has the potential of becoming a Buddha. Our true nature is Buddha nature.

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

In the gap between thoughts, nonconceptual wisdom shines continuously.

The nature of all things is like a magical illusion, a mirage, a dream, a reflection of the moon in water.

We don't set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts.

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

External seeking only leads to exhaustion. When you imitate others, you lose your own authenticity.

Love is not a feeling. It's a capability.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

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

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 goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.

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

The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes.

Don't be a bodhisatta; don't be an arahant; don't be anything at all. Being something makes you suffer.

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

Only one book is worth reading: the heart.

The sign of wisdom is constant joy.

Don't try to push away the darkness. Just light a lamp. The darkness will disappear by itself.

Just to be alive is enough.

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

The Buddha's teaching is a teaching of self-reliance, of being one's own master, one's own refuge.

The way to change the world is to change your own mind.

Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.

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

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

Forgiveness is not a moral issue. It's a power issue. When we hold onto grievance and resentment, we are giving our power away.

The root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have.

To understand everything is to forgive everything.

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

A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure.

The path is the goal. Every step of the journey is the journey.

Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness--life's painful aspect--softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person.

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.

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

To live is enough.

When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.

The purpose of life is to be happy, to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is not to be well known, cited, or powerful.

Altruism is not a luxury, it is a necessity for the survival of humanity.

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

A pure mind is always full of love - real love for all others.

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

The trouble is, you think you have time.

Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.

We practice to learn how to let go, not how to increase our holding on to things.

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

The grass is greener where you water it.

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

The heart of the path is quite simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are.

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

Through violence, you may solve one problem, but you sow the seeds for another.