To lead a life that goes beyond pettiness and prejudice and always wanting to make sure that everything turns out on our own terms, to lead a more passionate, full, and delightful life than that, we must realize that we can endure a lot of pain and pleasure for the sake of finding out who we are and what this world is...

True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings.

There is no cultivation of patience when your pattern is to just try to seek harmony and smooth everything out. Patience implies willingness to be alive rather than trying to seek harmony.

All the wars, all the hatred, all the ignorance in the world come out of being so invested in our opinions.

We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we’ll be more awake in our lives.

It's a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately filling up space.

It's not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share.