There comes a time when the bubble of ego is popped and you can’t get the ground back for an extended period of time. Those times, when you absolutely cannot get it back together, are the most rich and powerful times in our lives.

Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us.

We could learn to stop when the sun goes down and when the sun comes up. We could learn to listen to the wind; we could learn to notice that it's raining or snowing or hailing or calm. We could reconnect with the weather that is ourselves, and we could realize that it's sad. The sadder it is, and the vaster it is, the more our heart opens. We can stop thinking that good practice is when it's smooth and calm, and bad practice is when it's rough and dark. If we can hold it all in our hearts, then we can make a proper cup of tea.

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.

The central question of a warrior's training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort.

Nothing in its essence is one way or the other.

Everything is fresh, the essence of realization.