Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.

The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of all kinds.

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.

When one sees with wisdom that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, one is liberated from suffering.

When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.

The object of meditation and the mind which knows it must be noted as they occur. If they are not noted, desire arises and disturbs concentration.

Just observe whatever arises. Don't try to create anything, and don't reject anything.

Like a dream, like an illusion, like a city of gandharvas, that's how birth, and that's how living, that's how dying are taught to be.

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

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. If you let go completely, you will have complete peace.

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

Not by hatred is hatred conquered, but by love alone. This is an eternal law.

The Dhamma is not a collection of doctrinal formulas but a path leading to direct insight into the nature of reality.

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

The only thing that we truly have control over is our attitude toward experience.

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

The Noble Eightfold Path is not a path of mere intellectual understanding but a path of practice, of inner transformation.

When you recognize that pain and suffering are impermanent, you become free.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

Wisdom and compassion must be developed equally and harmoniously.

Our own life has to be our message.

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

Meditation is like catching a fish. If you try to catch it quickly, you'll miss it. If you have patience and know how to wait, the fish will come.

Radiate boundless love towards the entire world — above, below, and across — unhindered, without ill will, without enmity.

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

The door of your heart can only be opened from the inside.

The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life.

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.

What is evil? Killing is evil, lying is evil, slandering is evil, abuse is evil, gossip is evil, envy is evil, hatred is evil, to cling to false doctrine is evil; all these things are evil. And what is the root of evil? Desire is the root of evil, illusion is the root of evil.

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

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.