“See the world as a mirror. It is all a reflection of the mind. When you know this, you can grow in every moment, and every experience reveals truth and brings understanding.”

The Dhamma is revealing itself in every moment, but only when the mind is quiet can we understand what it is saying, for the Dhamma teaches without words.

If you haven’t cried deeply a number of times, your meditation hasn’t really begun.

There are two kinds of suffering. There is the suffering you run away from, which follows you everywhere. And there is the suffering you face directly, and so become free.

This is the nature of the mind. We must find our own practice and persevere.

The sound is just sound, why should you go and grab it? You see that actually it was you who went out and disturbed the sound.

Why do we suffer? Because we stepped on it. So the suffering comes from us.

It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering.

Practicing meditation is just like breathing. While working we breathe, while sleeping we breathe, while sitting down we breathe…

Of course there are dozens of meditation techniques, but it all comes down to this – just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. Why not give it a try?

Even if the water is falling right on it, it only touches the outside and not the inside. In this way the bowl will never get full.

Sati is life. Whenever we don’t have sati, when we are heedless, it’s as if we are dead.

If you are still following your likes and dislikes, you have not even begun to practise Dhamma.

Wisdom is in yourself, just like a sweet ripe mango is already in a young green one.

Then we don’t have to celebrate it or let anybody know about it, simply let the mind have firm confidence in the goodness and keep going like this.

Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: You won’t be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.

Just know what is happening in your mind – not happy or sad about it, not attached. If you suffer see it, know it, and be empty. It’s like a letter – you have to open it before you can know what’s in it.

Students today should live fully every moment of time. This dew-like life fades away; time speeds swiftly. In this short life of ours, avoid involvement in superfluous things and just study the Way.

It is easy to be mindless in America, because dreaming of and living for a better tomorrow is the American way. … The problem is, in the second half of the twentieth century, we have gotten so good at living for tomorrow that most of us spend very little time in the present.

To the degree that you avert your gaze from this truth, you build the potential for pain into your life. Everything is this act of embracing the present moment, the felt presence of experience, and then moving on to the next felt moment of experience. It’s literally psychological nomadism is what it is.

(My proudest moment as a child was the time I beat my uncle Pierre at Scrabble with the seven-letter word FARTING.)

Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity.

There are moments when Nature reveals the passion hidden beneath the careless calm of her ordinary moods-violent spring flashing white on almond-blossom through the purple clouds.

There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former.

He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration.