The essence of bravery is being without self-deception.

Meditation is about seeing clearly the body that we have, the mind that we have, the domestic situation that we have, the job that we have, and the people who are in our lives. It's about seeing how we react to all these things. It's seeing our emotions and thoughts just as they are right now, in this very moment, in this very room, on this very seat. It's about not trying to make them go away, not trying to become better than we are, but just seeing clearly with precision and gentleness.

The approach is that the best way to use unwanted circumstances on the path of enlightenment is not to resist but to lean into them.

Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear.

it is only to the extent that we are willing to expose ourselves again and again to annihilation that we are able to find that part of ourselves that is indestructible.

Meditation takes us just as we are, with our confusion and our sanity. This complete acceptance of ourselves as we are is called maitri, or unconditional friendliness, a simple, direct relationship with the way we are.

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.