Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control.

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.

The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?

Misery ceases to exist when we stop reacting to sensations.

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

The dharma is not about collecting more beliefs but about becoming free from the power of belief itself.

The way is basically perfect. It is not a matter of practice or enlightenment.

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

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

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

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

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

The purpose of Buddhist practice is not to become a Buddhist but to awaken to the nature of reality.

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure.

True happiness is not about getting rid of all our problems, but about changing our relationship to them.

Each moment of mindfulness is a moment of purification.

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

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

Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: you won't be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.

The path to liberation is a gradual path of self-discipline, self-development, and self-transformation.

The Noble Eightfold Path is not a path of mere intellectual understanding but a path of practice, of inner transformation.

The great gift of meditation is that it returns us to the simplicity of our own being.

The practice of patience guards us against losing our presence of mind.

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

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

The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do this in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded.

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

The practice of ethics is not about following rules but about developing inner purity and freedom.

The teaching of the Buddha is based on two truths: conventional truth and ultimate truth. Without understanding the relationship between these two, the deeper meaning of the Buddha's teaching cannot be understood.

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

Zen is a way of life, not a theory or a piece of knowledge to be stored away in our minds.

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