Anxiety and excitement are the same emotion. The only difference is our attitude toward the experience.

Each moment of clear seeing is a moment of freedom from the illusion of permanence, satisfaction, and self.

Compassion is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength.

Though the view should be as vast as the sky, keep your conduct as fine as barley flour.

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

When we recognize that our thoughts are just thoughts, we can choose whether or not to follow them.

Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.

The root of all suffering is ignorance. The antidote to ignorance is wisdom that realizes emptiness.

Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

The most important thing in life is to know death is coming and to prepare for it.

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

The challenge in meditation is not to eliminate thinking but to understand the nature of thought itself.

Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.

Metta (loving-kindness) becomes truly effective only when it arises from a peaceful mind, a pure mind, a balanced mind.

Each breath is a new beginning, a fresh opportunity to awaken.

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

Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good.

When you practice zazen you should not try to attain anything. You should just sit in the complete calmness of your mind and not rely on anything.

The movement of love is what creates the beauty in our lives.

The path is the goal. Every step of the journey is the journey.

The essence of Buddhist practice is to bring everything onto the path. Every experience becomes an opportunity for awakening.

The mind of the past is ungraspable; the mind of the future is ungraspable; the mind of the present is ungraspable.

The everyday practice is simply to develop complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions.

For whom emptiness is possible, everything is possible. For whom emptiness is not possible, nothing is possible.

The more we understand our mind, the more we understand the world.

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

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

The moment you note a thought, it disappears. The noting mind keeps the hindrances away.

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

Every step on the path must be with the understanding of anicca - impermanence. This is the essence of the teaching.

The mind that sees its own nature becomes free from all extremes.

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

The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.