Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

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

The sign of wisdom is constant joy.

Every thought, every word, and every action leaves an imprint on our mind.

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

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.

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

When one sees with wisdom that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, one is liberated from suffering.

The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.

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

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

The force of the kindness of others is so strong, we can't possibly measure it.

The deepest form of happiness comes from discovering the natural peace of our own awareness.

The victorious ones have said that emptiness is the relinquishing of all views. Those who are possessed of the view of emptiness are said to be incurable.

It is never too late to turn on the light.

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

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.

Emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is the space of possibility.

Right practice is steady practice. Whether you feel lazy or diligent, just keep practicing.

Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

Suffering comes from our resistance to what is. Peace comes from our acceptance of what is.

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

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

Personal experience is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience.

The mind itself is the maker of all happiness and misery; yet beings do not understand this and blame external conditions.

We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.

The mind creates the abyss, and the heart crosses it.

The mind that notes and the object that is noted are both impermanent. Understanding this leads to liberation.

The defilements of the mind are temporary visitors. Pure awareness is your true home.

Genuine happiness comes from having developed basic human qualities, such as attention, emotional balance, and generosity.

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

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.

Mindfulness is being aware of what is happening right now, without wishing it were different.

When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways - either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

The path of awakening is not about becoming who you are. Rather it is about unbecoming who you are not.

When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything.

Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.

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.

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.

The root of all suffering is ignorance. The antidote to ignorance is wisdom that realizes emptiness.

Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

Since all things are empty of inherent existence, anything is possible. If things had inherent existence, nothing would be possible.

External phenomena are like a dream, whatever appears is not real. Recognize the nature of dream-like phenomena to be dream-like.

In the gap between thoughts, nonconceptual wisdom shines continuously.

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind.

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

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

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

The purpose of meditation is to gain right understanding of the true nature of mental and physical phenomena.

Compassion is the radicalism of our time.

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

The real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

The path of awakening is not about becoming who we think we should be, but about unbecoming who we are not.

In the moment of pure noting, there is no self - only the knowing and the known.

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.

Meditation is like catching a fish. If you try to catch it quickly, you'll miss it. If you have patience and know how to wait, the fish will come.