Like all explorers, we are drawn to discover what's out there without knowing yet if we have the courage to face it.

Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

Until we stop clinging to the concept of good and evil, the world will continue to manifest as friendly goddesses and harmful demons.

So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.

Rather than becoming more relaxed, you start pulling down the shades and locking the door. When you do go out, you find the experience more and more unsettling and disagreeable. You become touchier, more fearful, more irritable than ever. The more you try to get it your way, the less you feel at home.

Lower your standards and relax as it is.

It's a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately fill up the space. By waiting, we begin to connect with fundamental restlessness as well as fundamental spaciousness. -Pema Chodron, from "When Things Fall Apart