Knowing yourself is to be rooted in Being, instead of lost in your mind.

The great arises out of small things that are honored and cared for. Everybody's life really consists of small things. Greatness is a mental abstraction and a favorite fantasy of the ego. The paradox is that the foundation for greatness is the honoring of small things of the present moment instead of pursuing the idea of greatness.

In the unawakened state you don't use thought, but thought uses you. You are, one could almost say, possessed by thought, which is the collective conditioning of the human mind that goes back many thousands of years. You don't see anything as it is, but distorted and reduced by mental labels, concepts, judgments, opinions and reactive patterns.

The ego tends to equate having with Being: I have, therefore I am. And the more I have, the more I am. The ego lives through comparison. How you are seen by others turns into how you see yourself.

Allow your dog to take you for a walk every day. It's good for the body and it's good for the soul.

[Relationships] do not cause pain and unhappiness. They bring out the pain and unhappiness that is already in you

Here is a new spiritual practice for you: don't take your thoughts too seriously.