The next time you encounter fear, consider yourself lucky. This is where the courage comes in. Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear. When I was first married, my husband said I was one of the bravest people he knew. When I asked him why, he said because I was a complete coward but went ahead and did things anyhow.

In practicing meditation, we're not trying to live up to some kind of ideal -- quite the opposite. We're just being with our experience, whatever it is.

This moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into what is unknown, uncharted and shaky - that's called liberation.

How do we cultivate the conditions for joy to expand? We train in staying present.

This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it's with us wherever we go.

To lead a life that goes beyond pettiness and prejudice and always wanting to make sure that everything turns out on our own terms, to lead a more passionate, full, and delightful life than that, we must realize that we can endure a lot of pain and pleasure for the sake of finding out who we are and what this world is...

By the way that we think and by the way that we believe in things, in that way our world is created.