If you're invested in security and certainty, you are on the wrong planet.

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.

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

We are like children building a sand castle. We embellish it with beautiful shells, bits of driftwood, and pieces of colored glass. The castle is ours, off limits to others. We’re willing to attack if others threaten to hurt it. Yet despite all our attachment, we know that the tide will inevitably come in and sweep the sand castle away. The trick is to enjoy it fully but without clinging, and when the time comes, let it dissolve back into the sea.

Meditation is not about getting out of ourselves or achieving something better. It is about getting in touch with what you already are.

The most complete and true happiness comes in moments when you feel right there, completely present, with no ideas about good and bad, right and wrong - just a sense of open heart and open mind.

Openness doesn’t come from resisting our fears but rather from getting to know them well.