The more you understand yourself, the more you understand the world.

Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness--life's painful aspect--softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person.

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

All worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death.

When we understand that peace is not dependent on external conditions, we can find it in the midst of any circumstance.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Vipassana is the art of living. Not the art of escaping.

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

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

The dharma is not outside of you. Looking for it elsewhere is like placing a Buddha on your head while searching for him everywhere else.

Both formerly and now, it is only suffering that I describe, and the cessation of suffering.

The purpose of meditation is not to create a mental vacuum but to come to know one's own mind.

The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your actions will be.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

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 farther you enter into truth, the deeper it is.

Though the view should be as vast as the sky, keep your conduct as fine as barley flour.

What Zen wants us to do is to acquire an entirely new point of view whereby to look into the mysteries of life and the secrets of nature.

The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.

Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.

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

The knowledge of dissolution comes when you see both the noting mind and noted object dissolving together.

Whatever is dependently co-arisen, that is explained to be emptiness. That, being a dependent designation, is itself the middle way.

The true mark of a spiritual practitioner is that your own behavior is better, not that you can criticize others well.

To see directly is to be free of hope and fear. Hope and fear are like a cloud before the sun.

The nature of mind is like a mirror. It is not affected by whatever appears in it, yet it never fails to reflect everything perfectly.

In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.

Where there is great doubt, there is great awakening; small doubt, small awakening; no doubt, no awakening.

Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future.

The Buddha's teaching is not about belief but about investigation, not about accepting but about examining.

Suffering is not the end of the story; it is the middle of the story.

The whole path of mindfulness is about letting go. We let go of our attachment to our views, our attachment to our opinions, our attachment to our ideas.