When we attempt to exercise power or control over someone else, we cannot avoid giving that person the very same power or control over us.

The true mark of a spiritual practitioner is that your own behavior is better, not that you can criticize others well.

The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.

The realization of impermanence leads not to despair but to a deeper appreciation of the preciousness of each moment.

Our own life has to be our message.

Loving-kindness is not something we need to manufacture. It's a natural expression of our awakened nature.

The path to enlightenment is not a path at all. It is a realization that where you are is where you have always been.

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

There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind.

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

The stages of insight unfold naturally when mindfulness is continuous. There is no need to desire them or try to make them happen.

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

Life is like a cup of tea. It's all in how you make it.

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

The essence of Buddhist practice is to bring everything onto the path. Every experience becomes an opportunity for awakening.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

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

The path to liberation requires both individual effort and the support of the spiritual community.

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

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

The Buddha's teaching challenges us to master the art of living, to live in a way that leads to the extinction of suffering.

Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself.

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

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

The root of suffering is not in the world outside us but in our own minds.

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

Do not mistake understanding for realization, and do not mistake realization for liberation.

Change is possible because there is nothing inherently permanent about our disturbing emotions.

Better to have one moment of genuine meditation than to perform religious activities for a thousand years.

If you want to know the past, look at the present. If you want to know the future, look at the present.

Mindfulness is not just bare attention but wise attention that leads to understanding and insight.

Only one book is worth reading: the heart.

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

The obstacle is the path.

The most important factor in achieving happiness is the mind. Happiness and suffering are mental states and therefore depend on the mind.

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

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

The mind is everything. What you think you become.

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

True happiness is not about getting rid of all our problems, but about changing our relationship to them.

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

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax.

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 problem is not the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem.

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

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

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

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

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

The development of wisdom requires both study and practice, both learning and direct experience.

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

Enlightenment is not the end of change but the end of resistance to change.

To live is enough.

Every experience is an opportunity to practice awareness.

Wisdom arises when you see the true characteristics of phenomena through direct experience.

The everyday practice is simply to develop complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions.

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

The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.

The Four Noble Truths are not merely theoretical propositions but a framework for understanding and transforming our experience.