“We no longer expect the sensory world to satisfy us.”

Meditation is a skilful letting go: gently but with resolution.

One should read them, listen to them, think about them, contemplate them, and investigate the present reality, the present experience with them. Then, and only then, can one insightfully know the truth beyond words.

A new day is here. Yesterday is a memory. Tomorrow is unknown. Now is the knowing.

Of course we can always imagine more perfect conditions, how it should be ideally, how everyone should behave. But it is not our task to create an ideal. It’s our task to see how it is, and to learn from the world as it is. For the awakening of the heart, conditions are always good enough.

Suttas are not meant to be ‘sacred scriptures’ that tell us what to believe.

Instead of becoming the world’s expert on Buddhism, just let go, let go, let go.

When we accept life as it is, we can respond appropriately to the way we’re experiencing it, rather than just reacting out of fear and aversion.

Whatever you think you are, that’s not what you are.

The empty mind – the pure mind – is not a blank, zero-land, where you’re not feeling or caring about anything.

The problem is grasping the clock. So what do I do? Let it go, lay it aside – put it down gently without any kind of aversion. Then I can pick it up again, see what time it is and lay it aside when necessary.

It’s an effulgence of the mind. It’s a brightness that is truly sensitive and accepting. It’s an ability to accept life as it is.

The goal lies away from the sensual world. It is not a rejection of the sensual world, but understanding it so well that we no longer seek it as an end in itself.

We no longer demand that sensory consciousness be anything other than an existing condition that we can use skillfully according to time and place.

The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable.

The mind of the ignorant person is conditioned and fixed.

I contemplated my greed for peace. And I did not seek tranquillity anymore.

As long as I live under the capitalistic system I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people.

Except this time, there will be no choice and nowhere to turn when things go wrong.

Everybody on our cast is very musically talented, except for me.

If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.

When you’ve lived the life that I have, you should always expect something like that to crop up. I was not a good boy.

People who are lazy, careless, doubtful-minded or arrogant need not expect God to reveal His secret or covenant to them.

Some people bear three kinds of trouble – the ones they’ve had, the ones they have, and the ones they expect to have.

Expect me to continue what I’ve been doing, which is trying to take over the world.