Your mind is like a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds.

If you want to understand suffering, you must look into the situation at hand. The teachings say that wherever a problem arises it must be settled right there.

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency, or change.

When concentration is developed, wisdom arises. When wisdom arises, one becomes disenchanted with the five aggregates.

Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.

The Buddha's teachings are not a religion, but a science of mind.

Zen is not necessarily against words, but it is well aware of their limitations.

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

The mind is everything. What you think, you become.

The mind is like water. When it's turbulent, it's difficult to see. When it's calm, everything becomes clear.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.

When you note effectively, there is no time for defilements to arise. The mind becomes pure through noting.

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

The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal.

When we rest in awareness, we discover a peace that is always present, regardless of circumstances.

The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

Sleep is the best meditation.

The grass is greener where you water it.

Forgiveness is giving up all hope for a better past.

Through violence, you may solve one problem, but you sow the seeds for another.

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.

Mindfulness is attention to life, and life itself is sacred.

The true person is not anyone in particular. But like the deep blue color of the limitless sky, it is everyone, everywhere in the world.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

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

The development of wisdom does not occur in isolation but requires the cultivation of the entire Noble Eightfold Path.

Compassion is not something we develop. It arises naturally as we see the truth of what is.

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