Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.

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

Our own life has to be our message.

The practice is simply this: keep coming back to your breath during the day. This will give your mind a steadiness and your life a balance.

True peace comes not from controlling the world, but from letting go of control.

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

In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.

The key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion.

Sticking with uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic—this is the spiritual path.

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

Misery ceases to exist when we stop reacting to sensations.

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

Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

The highest truth cannot be taught except through the conventional truth.

The purpose of meditation is to gain right understanding of the true nature of mental and physical phenomena.

Change is the nature of every phenomenon. Accept this truth and you will live a happy life.

Meditation is not an escape from life but a way to fully engage with life.

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

Conquer anger with non-anger. Conquer evil with good. Conquer stinginess with giving. Conquer deceit with truth.

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.

Faith is not a commodity that you either have or don't have - it is an inner quality that unfolds as we learn to trust our own deepest experience.

Time passes unhindered. When we make ourselves better, we make the world better.

Everybody has the light of Buddha within, but they don't look for it.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

The goal of meditation is not to reach some highest place, but to remain in the place where you already are.

Each breath is a new beginning, a fresh opportunity to awaken.

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

The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech.

If you love someone, the greatest gift you can give them is your presence.

Every time we become aware of a thought, as opposed to being lost in a thought, we experience that opening of the mind.

Mindfulness is the key to the present moment. Without it we cannot see the world clearly, and we cannot make the wisest choices in our lives.