We feel that we have to be right so that we can feel good. We don’t want to be wrong because then we’ll feel bad. But we could be more compassionate toward all these parts of ourselves. The whole right and wrong business closes us down and makes our world smaller. Wanting situations and relationships to be solid, permanent, and graspable obscures the pith of the matter, which is that things are fundamentally groundless.

The root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have.

The idea of karma is that you continually get the teaching that you need to open your heart.

As Buddhism moved to the West, one of the big characteristics was the strong place of women. That didn't exist in the countries of origin. It's just a sign of our culture.

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

Fear is a natural reaction of moving closer to the truth. If we commit ourselves to staying right where we are, then our experience becomes very vivid. Things become very clear when there is nowhere to escape.

What you do for yourself, you're doing for others, and what you do for others, you're doing for yourself.