The path of practice moves from faith through understanding to direct realization.

The only way to experience truth is to look within, to observe oneself.

If it isn't good, let it die. If it doesn't die, make it good.

The Buddha's teaching challenges us to master the art of living, to live in a way that leads to the extinction of suffering.

The mind is like a wild monkey, jumping here and there. But through meditation, we learn to see whatever arises in our mind with more spaciousness and clarity.

The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.

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.

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.

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

The highest truth cannot be taught except through the conventional truth.

All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddha.

The restraint of the senses is not a matter of suppression but of wise attention to our experience.

This very body is the Buddha. And this very earth the lotus paradise.

When you generate negativity, you are the first victim of your negativity.

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

Buddhas and ordinary beings are not two. Enlightenment and delusion are not different paths.

Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.

Just as true humor is laughter at oneself, true humanity is knowledge of oneself.

Because you are alive, everything is possible.

True happiness is not found through the multiplication of desires but through their simplification.

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

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

Enlightenment is not the end of change but the end of resistance to change.

May all beings be happy, be peaceful, be liberated.

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

To live – is that not enough? To love – is that not everything?

The experience of emptiness engenders compassion.

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.

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

Ethical conduct is not a constraint upon our freedom but a condition of our freedom.

To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

Those who know emptiness, know impermanence. Those who know impermanence, know non-self. Those who know non-self, know peace.

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.