Henepola Gunaratana Quotes

The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.

Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.

My motto is never to hold on to anything. I accept and then let go: not just the negatives, but the praise, too. Or it'll get to my head.

When you learn not to want things so badly, life comes to you.

What I want is not to want what isn't mine

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.

I see nothing wrong with the human trait to desire. In fact, I consider it integral to our success mechanism. Becoming attached to what we desire is what causes the trouble. If you must have it in order to be happy, then you are denying the happiness of the here and now.

Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted.

Man must do his part and detach himself from created things.

There are still things I want to do but they're not necessary for me to do. I'm not clinging to anything that I can't open my hands and let go.

I'm very happy with my life. I am what I am. I don't worry about anything that I can't control. That's a really good lesson in life.

I am happy with what comes, I don't have expectations of any stature.

I used to worry a lot and regret a lot before I took on this whole concept of karma. But now I understand that destiny is what it's all about. I still push ahead and look forward to achieving certain goals but I try not to lay up expectations that they have to happen.

The key is to be Zen-like and be happy with what one has.

The Dalai Lama has taught me that the best way to live life is to try and avoid desire. Desire is really the basic source of unhappiness.

When you focus on want, you become an endless cycle of wants. To get, simply release, and then gently invite.

No expectations. Ask nothing, expect nothing and accept everything, and life is very well.

To sit and contemplate - to remember the faces of women without desire, to be pleased by the great deeds of men without envy, to be everything and everywhere in sympathy and yet content to remain where and what you are.

So the unwanting soul sees what's hidden, and the ever-wanting soul sees only what it wants.

If you were wise enough to know that this life would consist mostly of letting go of things you wanted, then why not get good at the letting go, rather than the trying to have?

Inner peace begins when we stop saying of things, 'I have lost it' and instead say, 'It has been returned to where it came from.' Why should it be any concern of yours who gives your things back to the world that gave them to you? The important thing is to take great care with what you have while the world lets you have it.

When we recognize that nothing has to go right for us to be happy, that people do not have to behave for us to love them, our walk home can be surprisingly simple. We have enormous power not to manipulate the world, but to be happy and to know peace.

Freedom is not having everything we crave, it's being able to go without the things we crave and being OK with it.

Accept what comes to you totally & completely so that you can appreciate it, learn from it & then let it go.