We don't have to be harsh with ourselves when we think, sitting here, that our meditation or our oryoki or the way we are in the world is in the category of worst horse.

While we are sitting in meditation, we are simply exploring humanity and all of creation in the form of ourselves.

There isn’t any hell or heaven except for how we relate to our world. Hell is just resistance to life.

The meditation technique itself cultivate precision, gentleness, and the ability to let go - qualities that are innate within us.

Meditation is about seeing clearly the body that we have, the mind that we have, the domestic situation that we have, the job that we have, and the people who are in our lives.

One of the main discoveries of meditation is seeing how we continually run away from the present moment, how we avoid being here just as we are.

The path of meditation and the path of our lives altogether ha to do with curiosity, inquisitiveness.

We're here to get to know and study ourselves. The path, the way to do that, our main vehicle, is going to be meditation, and some sense of general wakefulness.

Meditation is a process of lightening up, of trusting the basic goodness of what we have and who we are, and of realizing that any wisdom that exists, exists in what we already have.

The problem is that the desire to change is fundamentally a form of aggression toward yourself.

The first noble truth says simply that it’s part of being human to feel discomfort.

I know that I am not always right to the perception of some, but I am not daunted of being wrong. That's the effectiveness of confidence.

Smart is what you learn from others. Wise is what you learn from yourself.

Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.

The greatest public health threat for many American women is the men they live with.

The pressures are intense, because the rewards for success and the penalty for failure are more and more.

I like playing strange characters. Some people might say it has something to do with a hidden part of myself, but I think it's a lot simpler than that: normal people are just not very interesting.

Manage things. Lead people.

Short of screaming-hot Thai food, everything can be suitable for kids too.

I call children "our ultimate investment."

The enemy is here, and if we do not whip him, he will whip us.