Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead, it's about becoming more fully human.

When the heart is still, it can be kind. When the mind is still, it can see clearly.

Just as the wise do not take a mirage to be water, nor an echo to be a voice, so the enlightened do not take the world to be real.

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.

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth.

Compassion is a verb.

The more you meditate, the more you understand yourself and the better friend you become to yourself.

The only way to experience truth is to look within, to observe oneself.

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.

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.

The purpose of a spiritual discipline is to give us a way to stop the war, not by our force of will, but through understanding and through letting go.

Trees, mountains, and vines all exist in nature according to their own truth. They are born and die following their nature. They remain this way because that's what they are. They don't practice meditation or do anything special.

Self-awareness is the key to freedom. The more we understand ourselves, the more we understand how to be free.

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

The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull's-eye which confronts him. This state of unconsciousness is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill.

Let none find fault with others; let none see the omissions and commissions of others. But let one see one's own acts, done and undone.

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.

The restraint of the senses is not a matter of suppression but of wise attention to our experience.

The Buddha and all sentient beings are nothing but expressions of the one mind. There is nothing else.

Be happy at the moment, that's enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.

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

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

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

The secret of happiness is to want what you already have.

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

When concentration is developed, wisdom arises. When wisdom arises, one becomes disenchanted with the five aggregates.

The nature of life is change. The nature of change is painful. The nature of pain is temporary.

A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.

There are many ways to meditate. But at the heart of them all is mindfulness.

The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.

Compassion is not mere sentiment but a powerful force that can transform both ourselves and others.

Metta (loving-kindness) becomes truly effective only when it arises from a peaceful mind, a pure mind, a balanced mind.

The mind of the past is ungraspable; the mind of the future is ungraspable; the mind of the present is ungraspable.