The Buddha's teaching is not a philosophical system but a practical guide to living.

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

Mindfulness is being aware of what is happening right now, without wishing it were different.

As surely as there is a voyage away, there is a journey home.

The greatest achievement is selflessness. The greatest worth is self-mastery.

If you see certainty in that which is uncertain, you are bound to suffer.

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

Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.

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

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

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

The mind that sees its own nature becomes free from all extremes.

Even if you speak of 'understanding,' this understanding is not a matter of knowledge. It is what fills the entire body and mind.

When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways - either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.

When we recognize that our thoughts are just thoughts, we can choose whether or not to follow them.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

When things fall apart and we're on the verge of we know not what, the test of each of us is to stay on that brink and not concretize.

The measure of success in spiritual life is how peaceful you are.

The mind is like a room with many windows. Open them all and let the fresh air in.

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.

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

The snow lion stays in the mountains, and the snow lion's ways are the snow lion's ways.

Every experience is an opportunity to practice awareness.

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

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

The mind is everything. What you think you become.

Insight knowledge comes from direct experience, not from intellectual understanding.

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

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.

The entire path is a path of self-responsibility. Nobody else can walk it for you.

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

When you love someone, you have to have trust and confidence. Love without trust is not yet love.

The path of awakening is not about becoming who you are. Rather it is about unbecoming who you are not.

When you let go of trying to control everything, you can relax and enjoy life.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

The more you understand impermanence, the more you appreciate every moment.

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

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

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

Loving-kindness is not something we need to manufacture. It's a natural expression of our awakened nature.

Not by hatred is hatred conquered, but by love alone. This is an eternal law.

The force of the kindness of others is so strong, we can't possibly measure it.

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

Silence is so much more productive of wisdom and clarity than thinking.

In the moment of pure noting, there is no self - only the knowing and the known.

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

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

We don't set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts.

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

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

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

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

Don't think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. If you do think this way, then quickly change your thinking.

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help.

The highest truth cannot be taught except through the conventional truth.

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

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 development of wisdom does not occur in isolation but requires the cultivation of the entire Noble Eightfold Path.

Since all things are empty of inherent existence, anything is possible. If things had inherent existence, nothing would be possible.