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

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

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

The first noble truth of the Buddha is that life contains suffering. The second noble truth is that the cause of suffering is craving.

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

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

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

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

If you want to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be miserable, expect something in return.

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

To live is enough.

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

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

Through violence, you may solve one problem, but you sow the seeds for another.

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

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

Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.

Meditation is not an escape from reality but a way to understand reality as it truly is.

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind.

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

The only things that are truly mine are my actions and their results.

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

The nature of mind is clearer than the sky, yet we keep looking elsewhere.

You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.

The more we understand the nature of our mind, the more we understand the nature of our world.

The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another.

Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.

The grass is greener where you water it.

Life is an art, and like perfect art it should be self-forgetting.

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

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

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

The Buddha's teaching is a middle way between all extremes, between eternalism and annihilationism, between self-indulgence and self-torture.

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 is like water. When it's turbulent, it's difficult to see. When it's calm, everything becomes clear.

The three characteristics - impermanence, suffering, and non-self - are not philosophical concepts but aspects of experience to be directly observed.

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

Happiness is found in the simplest of things. It is not in the things you own, but in the love you share.

Altruism is not a luxury, it is a necessity for the survival of humanity.

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

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

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

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

Every step on the path must be with the understanding of anicca - impermanence. This is the essence of the teaching.

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

Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control.

Zen is not necessarily against words, but it is well aware of their limitations.

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

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

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

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.

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.

Genuine happiness comes from having developed basic human qualities, such as attention, emotional balance, and generosity.

In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived, how well we have loved, how well we have learned to let go.

There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.

True peace comes not from controlling the world, but from letting go of control.

The present moment is the only moment available to us, and it is the door to all moments.