The kingdom of God is available to you in the here and the now. But the question is whether you are available to the kingdom. Our practice is to make ourselves ready for the kingdom so that it can manifest in the here and the now. You don't need to die in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, you have to be truly alive in order to do so.

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.

Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world.

Guarding knowledge is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge.

The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment.

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.

If your house is on fire, the most urgent thing to do is to go back and try to put out the fire, not to run after the person you believe to be the arsonist.

I come here empty-handed, and I go empty-handed. My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.

If we do not know how to take care of ourselves and to love ourselves, we cannot take care of the people we love. Loving oneself is the foundation for loving another person.

Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow — even today I am still arriving.

We can choose how to live our lives now. We can seize any moment and begin anew.

To dwell in the here and now does not mean you never think about the past or responsibly plan for the future. The idea is simply not to allow yourself to get lost in regrets about the past or worries about the future. If you are firmly grounded in the present moment, the past can be an object of inquiry, the object of your mindfulness and concentration. You can attain many insights by looking into the past. But you are still grounded in the present moment.

If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.

We who have touched war have a duty to bring the truth about war to those who have not had a direct experience of it. We are the light at the tip of the candle. It is really hot, but it has the power of shining and illuminating. If we practice mindfulness, we will know how to look deeply into the nature of war and, with our insight, wake people up so that together we can avoid repeating the same horrors again and again.

You have to realize that happiness is not something you find at the end of the road. You have to understand that it is here, now.

Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see... Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity.

Peace can exist only in the present moment. It is ridiculous to say 'Wait until I finish this, then I will be free to live in peace.' What is 'this'? A diploma, a job, a house, the payment of a debt? If you think that way, peace will never come. There is always another 'this' that will follow the present one. If you are not living in peace at this moment, you will never be able to. If you truly want to be at peace, you must be at peace right now. Otherwise, there is only 'the hope of peace some day.'

Happiness does not come from consumption of things.

Many people are alive but don't touch the miracle of being alive.

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

If you suffer and make your loved ones suffer, there is nothing that can justify your desire.

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.

Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.