Can't control others

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You can't control what anyone else thinks or does.
You only control the job you do, the reaction you have, the thoughts you think, the emotions you feel. And that's plenty.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

Want things

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Desire can make us want things, even when we know we don't really want them!

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

Concentrate on the now

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Concentrate on the now, and the future will take care of itself.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

More and Less

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A Tibetan story tells of two brothers, one with one yak, and one with 99 yaks. 

The brother with one yak was happy. All he needed was one yak. The brother with 99 yaks always worried about keeping track of and managing his yaks, yet was obsessed with wanting more . One day he asked his brother, "One yak isn't much different than none. I have 99 yaks, but 100 are really something. Will you give me your yak?" 

The brother easily gave the yak away, illustrating that the more you have, the more you want, and the less you have, the more easily you can give.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

Simply The World And Your Life

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Meditation does more than change your response to stress. It changes your response to yourself.
Or we could say it eliminates your response to yourself because you begin to see things the way they really are. 
You are simply you, and the world and your life are simply the world and your life.
You start to appreciate the beauty and the wonder of the mundane.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

don't be like an actor

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"You should not be like an actor, who puts on a costume for the performance and takes it off immediately at the end. Many of us are like that. Although we undertake the practice very seriously during the meditation session, after it is over, we revert to the same negative person again. 

We do whatever we like - fighting, quarreling, and so forth ....

Things are easy during the actual meditation session because there is no one interfere with you ... When you meditate, you are trying to transform your mind, but the effect really shows only during the postmeditation period."

- From Awakening the Mind, Lightening the Heart, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

Start with Breath

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Begin by watching your breath. Don't try to do anything to it. Don't worry about doing deep breathing or any particular kind of exercise. Just pay attention to what your breathing doing.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

Meditation, tame our mind

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Meditation means sitting still. Every day. For an actual period of time exceeding a couple of seconds. Meditation gets boring. Meditation gets uncomfortable. Meditation can be downright miserable at times.

That's because our minds, like wild animals, don't want to be tamed. They don't want to follow any rules. They don't want to be mastered. They want to master us. And they usually do! Only through sitting, sitting, sitting, do we bring our minds under control.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

What are the things that can't cause you stress?

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If you don't attach to the things that cause you stress, they can't cause you stress. 
Pretty simple, although it takes a lot of practice.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

Simply living

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We tend to name something "tragedy" when it doesn't meet our expectations.

Humans tend to categorize, label, and set up expectations. Cultivating a Zen attitude means simply living, experiencing, and being without categories, labels, or expectations.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

let go of your expectations

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The first step to recognizing what you do and don't control in your life is to let go of your expectations. 
If you don't expect anything, everything will be a new experience.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

Life is like a boat

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Your life is like a boat. The captain can't control the weather, the condition of the sea, or the storms. The captain can only commune with the air, boat, and sea to move the boat forward to its eventual destination.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

the crossroad of here and now

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"Like or not, this moment is all we really have to work with. Yet we all to easily conduct our lives as if forgetting momentarily that we are here, where we already are, and that we are in what we are already in. In every moment, we find ourselves at the crossroad of here and now." ~Kabat-Zinn

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

We cannot control others

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When you feel stressed or disturbed, rather than trying to find the root of the problem, you might just decide to give it up. Let it go. Don't analyze it or figure it out. You don't even need to understand it.

You have absolutely no control over the behaviour of others. If you can't control it, let it go.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

Dharma guide you toward truth

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Dharma, rather than telling you what is true, helps you to discover your own inner truth. So dharma isn't exactly a synonym for truth. It is more like that finger pointing to the moon. It can guide you toward truth.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

What is the truth?

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Here's the thing about truth: You already have it. We don't have it to give to you. Neither do your parents, your children, your teachers, your mentors, your best friends. Only you can find your truth. Truth isn't something inaccessible or unattainable, and it certainly doesn't exist "out there." It is inside you. All you have to do is find it.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

Finger Pointing at The Moon

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Imagine truth is the moon, and you are watching the moon's reflection in a stream. The water is moving, bubbling, flowing over rocks, murky in some place, and the moon's reflection is confused, distorted, and nothing like the actual moon in appearance.

This is like a mind desperately following every thought, emotion, and feeling. When the water becomes perfectly still, when thoughts and emotions are no longer rolling the river of your mind, the moon's reflection looks just like the moon. The truth might be so clear, you might even think to look up at the actual moon. Oh! There it is! Why I was looking down into the water, anyway?

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

What's so bad about thinking?

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What's so bad about thinking? Nothing at all.
Yet becoming so engaged with our thoughts that we forget to live in the moment, or allowing our thoughts to cause us suffering, are surefire ways to miss the Truth Bus. How can you fully manifest each moment of your precious existence if you are letting thoughts or feeling torture you?

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")