Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

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

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.

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?

Do everything with a mind that lets go. Don't accept praise or gain or anything else. If you let go a little, you will have a little peace; if you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace.

Don't take life too seriously. No one gets out alive anyway.

Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.

True freedom is not the absence of commitment but the presence of choice.

Every moment is a fresh beginning. Every breath is a new chance.

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.

The goal of meditation is not to achieve a blank mind, but to gain insight into the nature of mind itself.

When you look deeply into your anger, you will see that the person you call your enemy is also suffering. As soon as you see that, the capacity for accepting and having compassion for them is there.

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.

Meditation is not about achieving anything. It's about letting go of everything.

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

Don't expect or desire anything. Just keep noting whatever arises in the present moment.

Short moments, many times. That is the essence of meditation practice.

The best way to solve a problem is to help someone else solve their problem.

Don't be a bodhisatta; don't be an arahant; don't be anything at all. Being something makes you suffer.

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.

Hasten slowly and you will soon arrive.

Mind training is based on the idea that two opposite mental factors cannot happen at the same time.

The more we understand impermanence, the more we understand that we can't hold on to anything.

World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.

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

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

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

When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions.

Each moment of mindfulness is a moment of purification.

The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.

The dharma is not in the books. If you want to find the dharma, look in your mind.