Mindfulness is being aware of what's going on, not trying to control what's going on.

The essence of Buddhist practice is to reduce our selfishness and to work for the benefit of others.

Happiness is not about getting what you want, but wanting what you've got.

The root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have.

The root of suffering is attachment.

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

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

Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.

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

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.

When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything.

To live fully is to let go and die with each step.

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

Every moment is a fresh beginning. Every breath is a new chance.

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

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

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

When concentration is developed, wisdom arises. When wisdom arises, one becomes disenchanted with the five aggregates.

The nature of all things is like a magical illusion, a mirage, a dream, a reflection of the moon in water.

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

In the gap between thoughts, nonconceptual wisdom shines continuously.

My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra. My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantabhadri. I belong to the caste of non-duality of these two.

Mindfulness means keeping one's consciousness alive to the present reality.

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

The door of your heart can only be opened from the inside.

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

The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes.

The biggest prison is the one we build in our own mind.

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.

Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.

The victorious ones have said that emptiness is the relinquishing of all views. Those who are possessed of the view of emptiness are said to be incurable.

Vipassana is the art of living. Not the art of escaping.

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 root of all suffering is ignorance. The antidote to ignorance is wisdom that realizes emptiness.

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

My religion is to live and die without regret.

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.

Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.

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

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

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

Mind training is based on the idea that two opposite mental factors cannot happen at the same time.

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

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

The purpose of a spiritual discipline is to give us a way to stop the war, not by our force of will, but through understanding and through letting go.

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

The practice of meditation is not about achieving states of bliss but about seeing things as they really are.

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

In my youth I studied, in my prime I practiced, now all my doubts are cleared.

The Buddha's teaching is a teaching of self-reliance, of being one's own master, one's own refuge.

The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.

The purpose of life is to be happy, to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is not to be well known, cited, or powerful.

The past is gone, the future is not yet here. Live in the present moment with awareness.

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

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

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