The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life.

Life is nothing but a continuous chain of sensations. Pleasant or unpleasant, observe them objectively.

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 purpose of our lives is to be happy.

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

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

The nature of life is change. The nature of change is painful. The nature of pain is temporary.

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

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

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

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

The contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience, which in its very nature transcends linguistics.

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.

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

There is no difference at all between samsara and nirvana. There is no difference at all between nirvana and samsara.

If it isn't good, let it die. If it doesn't die, make it good.

When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight.

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

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

Wisdom is not about accumulating knowledge, but about seeing through all knowledge.

The past is for learning from, not for living in.

To live is enough.

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

Faith is not a commodity that you either have or don't have - it is an inner quality that unfolds as we learn to trust our own deepest experience.

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

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.

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

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves.

Although all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they function perfectly well.

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

Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.

Just as true humor is laughter at oneself, true humanity is knowledge of oneself.

Observe the reality as it is, not as you wish it to be.

The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment.

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

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

The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.

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

The Buddha's teaching is a middle way between all extremes, between eternalism and annihilationism, between self-indulgence and self-torture.

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.

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

Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control.

The only thing that we truly have control over is our attitude toward experience.

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.

If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will have complete peace.

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

In the gap between thoughts, nonconceptual wisdom shines continuously.

Awareness is the basis, or what you might call the "support," of the mind. It is steady and unchanging, like the pole to which the flag of ordinary consciousness is attached.

Let none find fault with others; let none see the omissions and commissions of others. But let one see one's own acts, done and undone.

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

Every moment of confusion is also a moment of wisdom, if we can learn to recognize it.

The six realms of existence are like a dream, why build a prison for yourself?

Our emotions are like waves in the ocean. We can't stop the waves, but we can learn to surf.

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

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

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

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

In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived, how well we have loved, how well we have learned to let go.