It is the basic principle of spiritual life that we learn the deepest things in unknown territory. Often it is when we feel most confused inwardly and are in the midst of our greatest difficulties that something new will open. We awaken most easily to the mystery of life through our weakest side. The areas of our greatest strength, where we are the most competent and clearest, tend to keep us away from the mystery.

The trouble is that you think you have time.

To become mindful … present … is really the invitation to work with the joys and the sorrows of the world, and to do so with this gift, this capacity of loving awareness, of attention that actually can be present for the whole dance.

To live fully is to let go and die with each passing moment, and to be reborn in each new one.

We are awakened to the profound realization that the true path to liberation is to let go of everything.

Only a deep attention to the whole of our life can bring us the capacity to love well and live freely.

Where we tended to be judgmental, we became more judgmental of ourselves in our spiritual practice.