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

In the spring, hundreds of flowers; in autumn, a harvest moon; in the summer, a refreshing breeze; in winter, snow will accompany you. If useless things do not hang in your mind, any season is a good season for you.

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals.

The mind is like a room with many windows. Open them all and let the fresh air in.

The truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act, not merely to reflect.

Time passes unhindered. When we make mistakes, we cannot turn the clock back and try again. All we can do is use the present well.

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.

When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

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

A pure mind is always full of love - real love for all others.

The knowledge of dissolution comes when you see both the noting mind and noted object dissolving together.

The secret of happiness lies not in getting what we want, but in learning to want what we already have.

The true mark of a spiritual practitioner is that your own behavior is better, not that you can criticize others well.

Be happy at the moment, that's enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.

Don't try to change the world. First, change yourself.

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

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

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

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.

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

When you note pain, you are not trying to make it go away. You are trying to understand its true nature.

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

The contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience, which in its very nature transcends linguistics.

Start from where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

Real peace comes from seeing things as they really are, not as we want them to be.

Insight knowledge comes from direct experience, not from intellectual understanding.

Change is possible because there is nothing inherently permanent about our disturbing emotions.

The practice of vipassana is the study of the self. When you study physical and mental phenomena, you are studying the truth about yourself.

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.

Those who understand interdependent origination understand suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal.

The root of suffering is attachment.

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

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

The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense.

Face your own anger and you will be free from anger. Face your own fears and you will be free from fear.

When you love someone, you have to have trust and confidence. Love without trust is not yet love.

The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.

True freedom is a freedom from the tyranny of our own thoughts and afflictive emotions.

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

Real happiness comes from having an unshakable connection to the deep wellspring of peace and happiness that is not dependent on external conditions.

If I had any position, I would thereby have a flaw. But since I have no position, I alone am without flaw.

Each of you is perfect the way you are... and you can use a little improvement.

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

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.

The essence of Buddhism is not a belief system but a systematic investigation of our experience.

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

The most important thing in life is to know death is coming and to prepare for it.

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

We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.

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

The mind is everything. What you think, you become.

If you want to understand suffering, you must look into the situation at hand. The teachings say that wherever a problem arises it must be settled right there.

We need the courage to learn from our experience and the wisdom to be willing to change and grow.

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

The menu is not the meal.

The Four Noble Truths are not merely theoretical propositions but a framework for understanding and transforming our experience.

Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment.

Liberation is not found by running away from our experience but by looking deeply into it.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.