Time passes unhindered. When we make ourselves better, we make the world better.

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

Emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is the space of possibility.

The essence of all phenomena is empty and clear like space. The nature of mind is awareness-emptiness like the sun and sky.

Since all things are empty of inherent existence, anything is possible. If things had inherent existence, nothing would be possible.

Our basic nature is pure awareness that simply cognizes experience. Everything else is temporary and adventitious.

Mindfulness is the quality and power of mind that is aware of what's happening—without judgment and without interference.

The real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

Enlightenment is not about becoming something special, but about realizing what we already are.

Mindfulness is the key to the present moment. Without it we cannot see the world clearly, and we cannot make the wisest choices in our lives.

As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, passion will break through an unreflecting mind.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

Metta is the ability to embrace all parts of ourselves, as well as all parts of the world.

As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

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

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

Personal experience is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

We can learn the art of fierce compassion - redefining strength, deconstructing isolation and renewing a sense of community, practicing letting go of rigid us-vs.-them thinking.

Silence is sometimes the best answer.

The practice of mindfulness is simply to bring awareness to what we are doing, what we are saying, and what we are thinking.

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.

Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

Our true nature is like a diamond - pure, brilliant, and indestructible. No matter how much dirt covers it, its essential nature remains unchanged.

When I run from suffering, it follows me. When I face suffering with equanimity, it runs from me.

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

The purpose of a spiritual discipline is to give us a way to stop the war, not by our force of will, but through understanding and through letting go.

What Zen wants us to do is to acquire an entirely new point of view whereby to look into the mysteries of life and the secrets of nature.

When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick. Every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower.

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

Sleep is the best meditation.

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

Our task is to learn to see clearly what is happening in each moment, rather than be lost in our reactions and judgments.