If you are involved with the intensity of crescendo situations, with the intensity of tragedy, you might begin to see the humor of these situations as well. As in music, when we hear the crescendo building, suddenly if the music stops, we begin to hear the silence as part of the music.

Sit and do nothing. Every once in a while a golden fish swims by and lays her golden eggs. You'll know.

The experience of a sad and tender heart is what gives birth to fearlessness. Conventionally, being fearless means that you are not afraid or that, if someone hits you, you will hit him back. But we aren't talking about that street-fighter level of fearlessness. Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world.

The epitome of the human realm is to be stuck in a huge traffic jam of discursive thought.

We are always in transition. If you can just relax with that, you'll have no problem.

Even fear itself is frightened by the bodhisattva's fearlessness.

The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use, even spirituality.