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

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

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce.

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

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.

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

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.

Buddhist practice is not to eliminate life's problems but to grow with them patiently and with compassion.

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

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

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

Freedom is not found in the absence of difficulty, but in our relationship to it.

In my youth I studied, in my prime I practiced, now all my doubts are cleared.

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

Time passes unhindered. When we make ourselves better, we make the world better.

Enlightenment is the realization that we were never really separate from one another or from all of life.

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

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 Buddha's teachings are not a religion, but a science of mind.

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.

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

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

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

Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.

Because you are alive, everything is possible.

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

If you want to know your past life, look at your present condition. If you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.

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

Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.

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

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

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

Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.

The ocean does not reject any water; therefore it is great. The mountain does not select its stones; therefore it is great.

Compassion is the radicalism of our time.

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

The essence of the spiritual journey is the uncovering of what is always already present.

Our true nature is like a diamond - pure, brilliant, and indestructible. No matter how much dirt covers it, its essential nature remains unchanged.

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

Your mind is like a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds.

The essence of meditation is not something complicated or exotic. It is simply taking a break from our habitual patterns.

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

You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

Equanimity is not indifference. It is the balanced mind that sees things clearly without reaction.

Enlightenment is not about becoming something special, but about realizing what we already are.

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

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

The more precisely you note, the more clearly you understand. The more clearly you understand, the stronger your insight becomes.

The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.

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

When the mind is ready to understand, the truth will come to meet it.

Compassion is not just about being kind to others. It's about being kind to ourselves as well.

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

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.

The root of suffering is attachment.

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.

Compassion is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength.

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.