There are techniques of Buddhism, such as meditation, that anyone can adopt.

If I forget to pray, I can’t get through the day without snapping at people.

The gigantic tension before the shooting of an arrow, and the total relaxation seconds later, is my way of connecting to the universe.

I never make conscious decisions.

Of those beings who live in ignorance, shut up and confined, as it were, in an egg, I have first broken the eggshell of ignorance and alone in the universe obtained the most exalted, universal Buddhahood.

There is such a thing as old emotional pain living inside you. It is an accumulation of painful life experience that was not fully faced and accepted in the moment it arose. It leaves behind an energy form of emotional pain.

If you aren’t in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.

To do nothing is also a good remedy.

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.

I like to take it easy.

Meditation is to get insight, to get understanding and compassion, and when you have them, you are compelled to act.

Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.

Some people awaken spiritually without ever coming into contact with any meditation technique or any spiritual teaching. They may awaken simply because they can’t stand the suffering anymore.

The basic Buddhist stand on the question of equality between the genders is age-old. At the highest tantric levels, at the highest esoteric level, you must respect women: every woman.

Peace in the world starts with peace in oneself. If everyone lives mindfully, everyone will be more healthy, feel more fulfilled in their daily lives and there will be more peace.

To meditate means to go home to yourself. Then you know how to take care of the things that are happening inside you, and you know how to take care of the things that happen around you.

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

True self is non-self, the awareness that the self is made only of non-self elements. There’s no separation between self and other, and everything is interconnected. Once you are aware of that you are no longer caught in the idea that you are a separate entity.

It is important to remember yourself.

Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys.

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

Never take anything for granted.

Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you’re doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.

Become slower in your journey through life. Practice yoga and meditation if you suffer from ‚hurry sickness.‘ Become more introspective by visiting quiet places such as churches, museums, mountains and lakes. Give yourself permission to read at least one novel a month for pleasure.

If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our food in that way we become grateful and when you are grateful, you are happy.

Buddhism is not a creed, it is a doubt.

In the morning, I practice 15 minutes of yoga.

Enjoy the satisfaction that comes from doing little things well.

The Dalai Lama is just a temporal leader of Tibet.

I realize that many elements of the Buddhist teaching can be found in Christianity, Judaism, Islam. I think if Buddhism can help, it is the concrete methods of practice.

True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

Because in a split second, it’s gone.

Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.

To be a monk is to have time to practice for your transformation and healing. And after that to help with the transformation and healing of other people.

I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.

If you’re not careful to think and speak words of faith, worry will creep in, and it will not only steal your peace and joy, it will steal your ‚today.‘ The present is the greatest gift God ever gives us. So hold on to the peace that’s yours in Christ. Don’t let it go.

Getting stress out of your life takes more than prayer alone. You must take action to make changes and stop doing whatever is causing the stress. You can learn to calm down in the way you handle things.

The incomparable greatness of the religions of the East lies in their having been second to none in vibrating with the passion for unity. This note, which is essential to every form of mysticism, has even penetrated them so deeply that we find ourselves falling under a spell simply by uttering the names of their Gods.

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them.

You practice mindfulness, on the one hand, to be calm and peaceful. On the other hand, as you practice mindfulness and live a life of peace, you inspire hope for a future of peace.

I’m very type-A, and many things in my life are about control and domination, but eating should be a submissive experience, where you let down your guard and enjoy the ride.

When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity – what they share with other human beings, or even with other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well.

A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

I like to let things breathe.

Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

If you are not living this moment, you are not really living.

Unless one is able to live fully in the present, the future is a hoax.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.