Use what seems like poison as medicine. Use your personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings.

The real thing that we renounce is the tenacious hope that we could be saved from being who we are.

Underneath our ordinary lives, underneath all the talking we do, all the moving we do, all the thoughts in our minds, there's a fundamental groundlessness. It's there bubbling along all the time. We experience it as restlessness and edginess. We experience it as fear. It motivates passion, aggression, ignorance, jealousy, and pride, but we never get down to the essence of it.

Every moment is incredibly unique and fresh, and when we drop into the moment, as meditation allows us to do, we learn how to truly taste this tender and mysterious life that we share together.

When there's a disappointment, I don't know if it's the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure.

Patience is not learned in safety.

Our neurosis and our wisdom are made out of the same material. If you throw out your neurosis, you also throw out your wisdom.