If you want to know the past, look at the present. If you want to know the future, look at the present.

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

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

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

The only way to experience truth is to look within, to observe oneself.

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

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

The Buddha's teaching is not a philosophy or a religion; it is a method of practice.

Wisdom is not something we have to strive to acquire. Rather, wisdom arises naturally as we open our hearts to the truth of what is.

Don't try to push away the darkness. Just light a lamp. The darkness will disappear by itself.

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

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

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

To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfection.

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

The one who grasps at existence suffers in samsara, while the one who grasps at non-existence will find no liberation.

The Buddha taught us to leave alone the things that don't lead to awakening.

A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.

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

The purpose of meditation is not to create a new state of mind, but to recognize what is already present.

To see the truth, do not be for or against. The struggle between for and against is the mind's worst disease.

Start from where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

We can learn to be present with whatever is happening in our lives, and in this way, we can begin to transform our relationship to difficulty.

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 root of happiness is altruism — the wish to be of service to others.

Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.

My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra. My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantabhadri. I belong to the caste of non-duality of these two.

The true person is not anyone in particular. But like the deep blue color of the limitless sky, it is everyone, everywhere in the world.

Misery ceases to exist when we stop reacting to sensations.

Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control.

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

True happiness is not about getting rid of all our problems, but about changing our relationship to them.

The person who clings to nothing of the past, present and future, who has no attachment and no aversion, has no conceptual imprints.

When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.

The root of suffering is not in the world outside us but in our own minds.

Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

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

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

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

All that appears and exists, all of samsara and nirvana, has one ground, two paths, and two results. This is the magical display of awareness and unawareness.

No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.

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

The development of wisdom requires both study and practice, both learning and direct experience.

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

The Buddha's teachings are not about abandoning our lives but about bringing the fullness of our attention to our lives.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

The practice is like peeling an onion. Layer after layer of delusion is removed through continuous mindfulness.

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

The goal of meditation is not to reach some highest place, but to remain in the place where you already are.

Don't take life too seriously. No one gets out alive anyway.

The lamp of wisdom burns constantly, illuminating the nature of mind.

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

If you want to climb a mountain, begin at the top.

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

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

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.

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

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

The difference between being caught in thoughts and being mindful of thoughts is like the difference between being in a movie and watching a movie.

The first step toward faith is to admit that we don't know everything.