The only way to ease our pain is to experience it fully. Learn to stay with uneasiness, learn to stay with the tightening, so that the habitual chain reaction doesn't continue to rule your life.

When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions we do not allow the wound to heal.

Hell is just resistance to life.

All ego really is, is our opinions, which we take to be solid, real, and the absolute truth about how things are.

If you ask why we meditate, I would say it's so we can become more flexible and tolerant to the present moment.

Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

Generosity is an activity that loosens us up. By offering whatever we can - a dollar, a flower, a word of encouragement - we are training in letting go.