Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

The practice of meditation is like tuning an instrument. Too tight, and the strings break. Too loose, and they won't play.

When we attempt to exercise power or control over someone else, we cannot avoid giving that person the very same power or control over us.

The Buddha's teaching is not a philosophical system but a practical guide to living.

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

The purpose of our lives is to be happy, and happiness is found in benefiting others.

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel.

The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.

Mindfulness means keeping one's consciousness alive to the present reality.

Breathing in, there is only the present moment. Breathing out, it is a wonderful moment.

The view is like a lion - it cannot be led around by anything else. Meditation is like an eagle - it cannot be distracted by anything else. Action is like a madman - it is free from accepting and rejecting.

Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.

Mindfulness is the gentle effort to be continuously present with experience.

The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.

Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.

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

My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra. My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantabhadri. I belong to the caste of non-duality of these two.

Awareness is always with us. We don't need to create it or achieve it - we just need to recognize what's already there.

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.

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

The practice of vipassana is the study of the self. When you study physical and mental phenomena, you are studying the truth about yourself.

In Zen there must be satori; there must be a general mental upheaval which destroys the old accumulations of intellection and lays down the foundation for a new life.

Try to be mindful and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become still in any surroundings, like a clear forest pool.

Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.

Forgiveness is giving up all hope for a better past.

In the monastery of your body, the monk of your mind must stay in retreat.

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

Life is nothing but a continuous chain of sensations. Pleasant or unpleasant, observe them objectively.

Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.

The difference between misery and happiness depends on what we do with our attention.

Silence is sometimes the best answer.