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

It's helpful to remind yourself that meditation is about opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing.

The still lake without ripples is an image of our minds at ease, so full of unlimited friendliness for all the junk at the bottom of the lake that we don't feel the need to churn up the waters just to avoid looking at what's there.

If it's painful, you become willing not just to endure it but also to let it awaken your heart and soften you. You learn to embrace it.

It's not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is a part of being alive, something we all share. We react against the possibility of loneliness, of death, of not having anything to hold on to. Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.

The Buddha taught that we're not actually in control, which is a pretty scary idea. But when you let things be as they are, you will be a much happier, more balanced, compassionate person.

By not knowing, not hoping to know and not acting like we know what's happening, we begin to access our inner strength.