Top 100 Haemin Sunim Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Be good to yourself first, then to others.”

— Haemin Sunim

2. “Life isn’t a hundred-meter race against your friends, but a lifelong marathon against yourself.”

— Haemin Sunim

3. “We know the world only through the window of our mind. When our mind is noisy, the world is as well. And when our mind is peaceful, the world is, too. Knowing our minds is just as important as trying to change the world.”

— Haemin Sunim

4. “Some say they don’t really know what they are looking for in life. This might be because, instead of getting in touch with how they feel, they have led their lives according to other people’s expectations. Live your life not to satisfy others, but to fulfill what your heart desires.”

— Haemin Sunim

5. “Don’t think you are lovable only when you succeed at what the world demands. You are already worthy of love.”

— Haemin Sunim

6. “When you care for yourself first, the world will also find you worthy of care.”

— Haemin Sunim

7. “Life teaches us through our mistakes.”

— Haemin Sunim

8. “Let it go” is actually another way of expressing “Accept it fully.”

— Haemin Sunim

9. “Be the kind of person who can put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand something not just from your own perspective but from theirs as well.”

— Haemin Sunim

10. “I wish you could see my true nature. Beyond my body and labels, there is a river of tenderness and vulnerability.”

— Haemin Sunim

11. “Our True self can never be lost, even for a single moment. Just like the present can never be lost- it is always here and now, wether or not we pay attention to it.”

— Haemin Sunim

12. “Wisdom is not something we have to strive to acquire. Rather, it arises naturally as we slow down and notice what is already there.”

— Haemin Sunim

13. “It is a sign of great spiritual strength to keep someone else’s secret.”

— Haemin Sunim

14. “The more you know, the more you think you don’t. The more you don’t know, the more you think you do.”

— Haemin Sunim

15. “When we look at the outside world, we are looking at only a small part that interests us. The world we see is not the entire universe but a limited one that the mind cares about. However, to our minds, that small world is the entire universe. Our reality is not the infinitely stretching cosmos but the small part we choose to focus on. Reality exists because our minds exist. Without the mind, there would be no universe.”

— Haemin Sunim

16. “I was once told by a Buddhist master that there are two kinds of children in the world: those born to repay the kindness of their parents, and those born only to take what their parents have. Ask yourself: Which kind of a son or daughter are you to your parents?”

— Haemin Sunim

17. “There is a saying in Korea: “Lengthy deliberation often leads to a terrible decision.” If you think and worry too much before doing something, “your boat goes to the mountain instead of the ocean.”

— Haemin Sunim

18. “There is a famous Buddhist saying that everyone appears as buddhas in the eyes of the Buddha and everyone appears as pigs in the eyes of a pig. It suggests that the world is experienced according to the state of one’s mind. When your mind is joyful and compassionate, the world is, too. When your mind is filled with negative thoughts, the world appears negative, too. When you feel overwhelmed and busy, remember that you are not powerless. When your mind rests, the world also rests.”

— Haemin Sunim

19. “Listening openly, patiently, and attentively is one of the most significant expressions of love.”

— Haemin Sunim

20. “Love, not righteous words, can change people’s lives.”

— Haemin Sunim

21. “We sometimes find it difficult to control our emotions. At such times, take some quiet time alone. Go for a walk on your own, watch a great film read a new book, or do some meditation. Give the suppressed emotion space until it can breathe easily.”

— Haemin Sunim

22. “And yet, even though we find many such imperfect things in the world we live in, we cannot help but love them. Because our lives are far too precious to be spent in ridicule and hatred of what doesn’t appeal to us, of what we do not understand.”

— Haemin Sunim

23. “When we become kinder to ourselves, we can become kinder to the world.”

— Haemin Sunim

24. “Remember that you are neither your feelings nor the story your mind tells about you to make sense of them. You are the vast silence that knows of their emergence and their disappearance.”

— Haemin Sunim

25. “If you wish to clear away the clouds of your thoughts, simply keep your mind in the present. The clouds of thought linger on in the past or the future. Bring your mind to the present, and your thoughts will rest.”

— Haemin Sunim

26. “Love is the state of not knowing, and of wanting to know more.”

— Haemin Sunim

27. “If you want to predict how a politician will act after winning an election, look at how he currently lives and how he has behaved in the past. A person does not live the way he says he would. He lives the way he has been living.”

— Haemin Sunim

28. “Labeling something a problem is often what makes it one.”

— Haemin Sunim

29. “Ware vrijheid is vrij zijn van de angst om niet perfect te zijn.”

— Haemin Sunim

30. “Love is trusting someone, being there for someone, being ready to listen with a tender heart for no other reason than love. At times we are not sure whether what we feel is love. At that moment, ask yourself this: “Am I happy to give more even after having given a lot?” If the answer is yes, and there is no regret afterward, then that is probably love.”

— Haemin Sunim

31. “Allow yourself a good night’s sleep. When you wake up the next day, the problem will seem lighter. It works, truly.”

— Haemin Sunim

32. “Isn’t it better to be happy together than to be right alone?”

— Haemin Sunim

33. “One word of encouragement, said with kindness and hope, can change a person’s future, the way it did for the five hundred disciples and for me.”

— Haemin Sunim

34. “May you find the eye of compassion within you!”

— Haemin Sunim

35. “Our emotions are capricious, like the weather in London. One minute, when someone criticizes us, we are offended and furious. The next minute, when someone praises us, we feel proud and pompous. Unless we recognize the still point beneath the surface of our changing emotions, we will feel we are hostage to their whims.”

— Haemin Sunim

36. “Stop shouting, “What if?” and just take a leap of faith.”

— Haemin Sunim

37. “If I had to summarize the entirety of an enlightened person’s life in a few words, it would be complete acceptance of what is. As we accept what is, our minds are relaxed and composed while the world changes rapidly around us.”

— Haemin Sunim

38. “We are worthy of being loved not because of what we do well but because we are precious living beings. Even if you don’t achieve the perfection the world demands, your existence already has value and is worthy of love.”

— Haemin Sunim

39. “It’s okay that you have flaws. How could our lives be as clean and white as a blank sheet of paper? Life naturally takes its toll on our bodies, our minds, and our relationships. rather than choosing a life in which you do nothing for fear of making a mistake, choose a life that improves through failure and pain. And shout out loud to your struggling self, I love you so much.”

— Haemin Sunim

40. “Given that the world we see through our mind’s eye is limited, if we can train our mind and choose wisely where to focus, then we will be able to experience the world corresponding to the state of our mind.”

— Haemin Sunim

41. “Do not fight your negative emotions. Observe and befriend them.”

— Haemin Sunim

42. “If we look at it more closely, we see it’s not the situation that is troubling us, but our perspective on it.”

— Haemin Sunim

43. “A cruel irony: The reward for someone who works hard is more work.”

— Haemin Sunim

44. “Thinking too much can make it difficult to act. If you just do it, then it is done. But if you give in to your thinking, your mind will get in the way, telling you “you can’t,” “you shouldn’t,” “you don’t want to.” In that case, get up early the next morning and just do the thing you’ve been putting off. If you give yourself time to start thinking about it, inaction will take hold again.”

— Haemin Sunim

45. “Don’t just wait for what you want to happen. Act first.”

— Haemin Sunim

46. “If you are desperately looking to meet someone special, send your prayer out to the universe. The universe is an amazing matchmaker.”

— Haemin Sunim

47. “People are like heaters.” Our presence can warm each other.”

— Haemin Sunim

48. “The most dangerous people are those who have passion but lack wisdom. If.”

— Haemin Sunim

49. “What makes music beautiful is the distance between one note and another. What makes speech eloquent is the appropriate pause between words. From time to time we should take a breath and notice the silence between sounds.”

— Haemin Sunim

50. “The person leading you toward spiritual awakening is not the one who praises you or is nice to you. Your spirituality deepens because of those who insult you and give you a hard time. They are your spiritual teachers in disguise. How.”

— Haemin Sunim