Most spiritual experiences begin with suffering. They begin with groundlessness. They begin when the rug has been pulled out from under us.

What you do for yourself, you're doing for others, and what you do for others, you're doing for yourself.

When we struggle agains our energy we reject the source of wisdom. Anger without the fixation is none other than clear-seeing wisdom. Pride without fixation is experienced as equanimity. The energy of passion when it's free of grasping is wisdom that sees all the angles.

The essence of bravery is being without self-deception.

So even if the hot loneliness is there, and for 1.6 seconds we sit with that restlessness when yesterday we couldn't sit for even one, that's the journey of the warrior. (68)

Nothing in its essence is one way or the other.

Our patterns are well established, seductive, and comforting. Just wanting for them to be ventilated isn't enough. Those of us who struggle with this know.