Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been any different.

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

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

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

Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind.

Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.

Like a fine flower, beautiful to look at but without scent, fine words are fruitless in a man who does not act in accordance with them.

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

The past is just a memory. The future is just a dream. Be here now.

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

The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.

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

The goal of the Buddhist path is not to add something to our existence but to discover something that has been there all along.

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

There is no difference at all between samsara and nirvana. There is no difference at all between nirvana and samsara.

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

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

When we attempt to exercise power or control over someone else, we cannot avoid giving that person the very same power or control over us.

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.

The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment.

To what shall I compare this life? It is like a boat that left at dawn, leaving no trace.

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.

Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back, and reasons to stay.

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

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

Our own life has to be our message.

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

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

The path of insight is a path of discovery, not a path of creation. We are discovering what is already there.

Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.

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

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.

Do not mistake understanding for realization, and do not mistake realization for liberation.

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

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

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

When you recognize that pain and suffering are impermanent, you become free.

The sign of wisdom is constant joy.

The obstacle is the path.

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

When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways - either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.

Equanimity is not indifference. It is the balanced mind that sees things clearly without reaction.

The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.

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

The deepest form of happiness comes from discovering the natural peace of our own awareness.

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

If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will have complete peace.

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

Neither from itself nor from another, nor from both, nor without a cause, does anything whatever, anywhere arise.

Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.

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

The more clearly you see the arising and passing of phenomena, the less you will be attached to them.

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

To be attached to a thing means that mind and the thing meet and grow into each other.

The purpose of meditation is to gain right understanding of the true nature of mental and physical phenomena.

When the heart is still, it can be kind. When the mind is still, it can see clearly.

The path to liberation requires both individual effort and the support of the spiritual community.

The development of wisdom requires both study and practice, both learning and direct experience.