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

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

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

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

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

What we learn about the world is colored by the way we approach it.

Study the Buddha's teaching which is present in every moment.

Though the view should be as vast as the sky, keep your conduct as fine as barley flour.

The path of insight is a path of discovery, not a path of creation. We are discovering what is already there.

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

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

The heart of one who practices is like the earth. No matter what they throw on it, the earth remains unchanged.

It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.

The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

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

The essence of meditation is not something complicated or exotic. It is simply taking a break from our habitual patterns.

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.

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

The perfect moment is this one, not the one you're waiting for.

Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.

The practice of patience guards us against losing our presence of mind.

The world is its own magic.

Our defilements are like tame tigers. If you feed them, they're tame. If you stop feeding them, they'll eat you up.

Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future.

Wisdom and compassion must be developed equally and harmoniously.

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

The Buddha taught that wealth does not bring happiness and security. The pursuit of wealth is a matter of living in balance.

The path is the goal. Every step of the journey is the journey.

Right practice is steady practice. Whether you feel lazy or diligent, just keep practicing.

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

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

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

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

The path of practice requires both faith and wisdom, both devotion and understanding.

The essence of Buddhist practice is to bring everything onto the path. Every experience becomes an opportunity for awakening.

To live is enough.

Trees, mountains, and vines all exist in nature according to their own truth. They are born and die following their nature. They remain this way because that's what they are. They don't practice meditation or do anything special.

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

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

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

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

The difference between buddhas and sentient beings is that buddhas recognize their nature while sentient beings fail to recognize it.

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

By understanding emptiness, one understands all phenomena. Without understanding emptiness, one understands nothing.

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

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax.

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

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

Our own life has to be our message.

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 spiritual journey is not about heaven and finally getting to a place that's really swell.

Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts.

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.

Don't be afraid of the future. The future is good.

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

Peace is not found by changing the world, but by changing your attitude to the world.

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

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

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

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.