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

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

The truth of suffering is not to be feared but to be understood through direct observation.

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

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

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

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

Knowledge must be stabilized by meditation. Without meditation, knowledge is like a child in battle.

When the mind is ready to understand, the truth will come to meet it.

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

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

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

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

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

Recognize the emptiness of all phenomena, but do not become attached to emptiness itself.

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

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

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

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

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.

The dharma is not outside of you. Looking for it elsewhere is like placing a Buddha on your head while searching for him everywhere else.

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

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

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

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

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

You are the master of your own mind. You can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

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.

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

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

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

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

The greatest achievement is selflessness. The greatest worth is self-mastery.

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

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

Our own life has to be our message.

Kindness is the solution to all of life's problems.

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

Love is the wish that others be happy, and compassion is the wish that they be free from suffering.

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.

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

The practice is like peeling an onion. Layer after layer of delusion is removed through continuous mindfulness.

The Dhamma unfolds in accordance with a definite sequence: faith, virtue, learning, generosity, wisdom, and insight.

The menu is not the meal.

Mindfulness is not just bare attention but wise attention that leads to understanding and insight.

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

The root of suffering is attachment.

The secret of happiness is to want what you already have.

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

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.

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

The mind creates the abyss, and the heart crosses it.

The mind that notes and the object that is noted are both impermanent. Understanding this leads to liberation.

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.

Every being has the potential of becoming a Buddha. Our true nature is Buddha nature.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

The goal of meditation is not to reach some highest place, but to remain in the place where you already are.

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