The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.

When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

Panic is a gateway to wisdom. When we learn to stay present with our panic, it becomes our teacher.

Forgiveness is giving up all hope for a better past.

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

Through continuous mindfulness practice, the true nature of physical and mental phenomena becomes clear.

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

The obstacle is the path.

Sensations are not your enemy. They are your teacher. Through observing them, you understand the truth of existence.

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

When I run from suffering, it follows me. When I face suffering with equanimity, it runs from me.

Kindness is the solution to all of life's problems.

The path to liberation is through understanding the true nature of mind and matter through direct observation.

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

The Dhamma unfolds in accordance with a definite sequence: faith, virtue, learning, generosity, wisdom, and insight.

Panic, anxiety, and stress are not obstacles to the practice. They are the path to wisdom and compassion.

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

When we understand others, we understand ourselves. When we love others, we love ourselves.

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.

The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal.

The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation.

Happiness is found in the simplest of things. It is not in the things you own, but in the love you share.

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

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

The purpose of our lives is to be happy, and happiness is found in benefiting others.

The deepest happiness comes from having an enduring sense of purpose, one that gives our lives meaning beyond the endless pursuit of pleasure and success.

Happiness is not the pursuit of an endless succession of experiences but an attitude toward life.

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

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

The nature of everything is illusory and ephemeral, those with dualistic perception regard suffering as happiness, like they who lick the honey from a razor's edge.

The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.

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

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

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 secret of happiness lies not in getting what we want, but in learning to want what we already have.

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

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

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

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

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

Mindfulness isn't difficult, we just need to remember to do it.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another – and ourselves.

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

Our own life has to be our message.

If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.

The practice of mindfulness leads naturally to concentration. Concentration leads naturally to wisdom.

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

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

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

The goal of Buddhist practice is not to escape from the world but to transform our relationship with it.

The movement of love is what creates the beauty in our lives.

The key to the Buddha's teaching is not grasping, not trying to hold onto things that are essentially impermanent and unstable.

Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been any different.