There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

The more we understand impermanence, the more we appreciate each moment of our lives.

If you want to understand suffering, you must look into the situation at hand. The teachings say that wherever a problem arises it must be settled right there.

You are the master of your own mind. You can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

Liberation is not found by running away from our experience but by looking deeply into it.

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

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.

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

The more you understand yourself, the more you understand the world.

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel.

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

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

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

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

Impermanence, suffering, and non-self are not philosophical concepts but realities to be directly perceived through mindfulness practice.

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

The practice is not about achieving special states but about seeing ordinary experience with extraordinary clarity.

Without darkness, there is no light. Without the path, there is no arrival.

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.

Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.

Just to be alive is enough.

Like a fine flower, beautiful to look at but without scent, fine words are fruitless in a man who does not act in accordance with them.

Wisdom and compassion must be developed equally and harmoniously.

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

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

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

The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment.

The essence of Buddhist practice is to reduce our selfishness and to work for the benefit of others.

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

When dharma fills your body and mind, you realize that something is missing.

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

The Noble Eightfold Path is a path of training: training in ethical conduct, training in mental discipline, and training in wisdom.

The Buddha's teaching is a teaching of self-reliance, of being one's own master, one's own refuge.

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

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

Ethical conduct is not a constraint upon our freedom but a condition of our freedom.

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 more we understand impermanence, the more we understand that we can't hold on to anything.

Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.

Compassion is not something we develop. It arises naturally as we see the truth of what is.

All worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death.

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

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.

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

The goal of the Buddhist path is not to add something to our existence but to discover something that has been there all along.

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

Each decision we make, each action we take, is born out of an intention.

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

Love is not a feeling. It's a capability.

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.

Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what's happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what's happening.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax.

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

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

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

The ultimate source of happiness is not money and power, but warm-heartedness.

We practice to learn how to let go, not how to increase our holding on to things.

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