If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

Our practice cannot be perfect, but without being discouraged by this, we should continue it. This is the secret of practice.

The Buddha taught that wealth does not bring happiness and security. The pursuit of wealth is a matter of living in balance.

Every being has the potential of becoming a Buddha. Our true nature is Buddha nature.

Face your own anger and you will be free from anger. Face your own fears and you will be free from fear.

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

Our defilements are like tame tigers. If you feed them, they're tame. If you stop feeding them, they'll eat you up.

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

Anger or hatred is like a fisherman's hook. It is very important for us to ensure that we are not caught by it.

Those who grasp at things as truly existent are like someone trying to catch the reflection of the moon in water.

The difference between buddhas and sentient beings is that buddhas recognize their nature while sentient beings fail to recognize it.

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

When we know the truth, we become people who don't have to think much, we become people with wisdom.

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

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

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

Love is not a feeling. It's a capability.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.

The stages of insight unfold naturally when mindfulness is continuous. There is no need to desire them or try to make them happen.

In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they have contracted themselves into a single moment of the present where life quivers in its true sense.

When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you intuit dharma intimately.

Craving and aversion are the roots of suffering. Observe them with equanimity.

Genuine happiness comes from having developed basic human qualities, such as attention, emotional balance, and generosity.

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

The greatest obstacle to meditation is our expectation about what it should be.

Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

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

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

The eye with which I see Buddha is the same eye with which Buddha sees me.