To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.

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.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

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

If you want to find peace, then look at that point where you find you're dissatisfied and investigate what's really going on.

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.

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

The goal of Buddhist practice is not to escape from the world but to transform our relationship with it.

The best way to solve a problem is to help someone else solve their problem.

When you understand that all phenomena are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self, attachment naturally falls away.

The Buddha's teaching is not about belief but about investigation, not about accepting but about examining.

True peace is found not in the absence of experience but in the clear seeing of all experience.

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

Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness--life's painful aspect--softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person.

The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

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

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

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.

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

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

The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred.

Silence is sometimes the best answer.

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

Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.

People who study a lot but don't practice are like a ladle in a soup pot. It's in the soup every day, but it doesn't know the taste of the soup.

The secret of happiness is to want what you already have.

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

Life is available only in the present moment.

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

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

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

Emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is the space of possibility.

Understanding means throwing away your knowledge.

The stages of insight unfold naturally when mindfulness is continuous. There is no need to desire them or try to make them happen.

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

The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.

Mindfulness is the key to the present moment. Without it we cannot see the world clearly, and we cannot make the wisest choices in our lives.

True happiness is not found through the multiplication of desires but through their simplification.

The most important factor in achieving happiness is the mind. Happiness and suffering are mental states and therefore depend on the mind.

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

The key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion.

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.

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

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

To understand everything is to forgive everything.

Don't be a bodhisatta; don't be an arahant; don't be anything at all. Being something makes you suffer.

Buddhist practice is not to eliminate life's problems but to grow with them patiently and with compassion.

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

The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.

Karma is not fate but the law of moral causation, showing us that we are the architects of our own destiny.

The Dhamma is not a collection of doctrinal formulas but a path leading to direct insight into the nature of reality.

Through continuous mindfulness practice, the true nature of physical and mental phenomena becomes clear.

The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought.