The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease.

If you want to understand suffering, you must look into the situation at hand. The teachings say that wherever a problem arises it must be settled right there.

The true path is not difficult; just avoid picking and choosing.

The path is not about perfecting ourselves, but about perfecting our love.

Liberation is not found by running away from our experience but by looking deeply into it.

Do everything with a mind that lets go. Don't accept praise or gain or anything else. 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.

True happiness is not found through the multiplication of desires but through their simplification.

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

Happiness is a skill that can be developed like playing an instrument or learning to read.

The practice of meditation requires both energy and patience, both effort and relaxation.

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.

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

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

Silence is so much more productive of wisdom and clarity than thinking.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.

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

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

The spiritual journey begins with the recognition that beneath our surface happiness there lies a deep inner pain.

What you are is what you have been. What you'll be is what you do now.

The rising and falling of the abdomen is not the main object. The main object is to develop mindfulness, concentration, and insight.

The cultivation of loving-kindness has the power to transform enmity into amity, hostility into hospitality.

When you note effectively, there is no time for defilements to arise. The mind becomes pure through noting.

Hasten slowly and you will soon arrive.

When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation.

The noting mind and the object noted appear to occur as a pair. Through concentration they are seen to arise and vanish together.

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

Mindfulness is not just bare attention but wise attention that leads to understanding and insight.

Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.

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

The practice of mindfulness is simply to bring awareness to what we are doing, what we are saying, and what we are thinking.

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring wood: all these I do in Zen.

Wisdom is not something we have to strive to acquire. Rather, wisdom arises naturally as we open our hearts to the truth of what is.

Meditation is not about stopping thoughts, but recognizing that we are not our thoughts.

Each moment of mindfulness is a moment of purification.

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another – and ourselves.

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

The cave I live in is empty and so is my mind. I live simply and at ease.

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind.

The willingness to empty ourselves and then seek our true nature is an expression of great and courageous love.

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

The goal of meditation is not to achieve a blank mind, but to gain insight into the nature of mind itself.

Sensations are not your enemy. They are your teacher. Through observing them, you understand the truth of existence.

Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.

The path to liberation requires both understanding and practice, both pariyatti and patipatti.

This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.

The Buddha's teaching is a teaching of self-reliance, of being one's own master, one's own refuge.

Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.

The more you give, the more you have. That's the economics of kindness.

The stages of insight unfold naturally when mindfulness is continuous. There is no need to desire them or try to make them happen.

The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.

The ultimate purpose of Buddhism is to serve and benefit humanity.

Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure.

Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself.

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

Wisdom arises when you see the true characteristics of phenomena through direct experience.

The greatest obstacle to meditation is our expectation about what it should be.