Our emotions are like waves in the ocean. We can't stop the waves, but we can learn to surf.

We deal with our mind from morning until evening, and it can be our best friend or our worst enemy.

When we know the truth, we become people who don't have to think much, we become people with wisdom.

Expectations are the thieves of joy.

The more you suffer the deeper grows your character, and with the deepening of your character you read the more penetratingly into the secrets of life.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

Hasten slowly and you will soon arrive.

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

Work diligently. Diligently. Work patiently and persistently. Patiently and persistently. And you're bound to be successful. Bound to be successful.

The water in the ocean can be rough or calm. It can be clear or murky. But the water itself doesn't mind.

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

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.

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.

Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.

The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.

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.

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.

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

The treasure house within you contains everything, and you are free to use it. You don't need to seek outside.

Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.

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

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

Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.

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

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

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

True freedom is not the absence of commitment but the presence of choice.

The five aggregates are not a theoretical model but a description of lived experience to be investigated through mindfulness.

You are your own teacher. Looking for teachers can't solve your own doubts. Investigate yourself to find the truth - inside, not outside.

Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.

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

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight.

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

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.

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself.

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.

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

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

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

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.

The practice of Buddhism is fundamentally a practice of expanding our happiness and diminishing our suffering.

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

The key to transformation is not to fight with our experience but to open to it with awareness.

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

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

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

Right View is not just a matter of intellectual understanding but of seeing things as they really are.

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

The law of nature is the law of cause and effect. As you sow, so shall you reap.

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.

The practice of mindfulness is the practice of being alive in the present moment.

External phenomena are like a dream, whatever appears is not real. Recognize the nature of dream-like phenomena to be dream-like.

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

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