Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.

Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?

Suffering begins to dissolve when we can question the belief or the hope that there's anywhere to hide.

To put it concisely, we suffer when we resist the noble and irrefutable truth of impermanence and death.

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

The difference between theism and nontheism is not whether one does or does not believe in God. . . Theism is a deep-seated conviction that there's some hand to hold: if we just do the right things, someone will appreciate us and take care of us. . . Nontheism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves.

Compassion isn't some kind of self-improvement project or ideal that we're trying to live up to. Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves, all those imperfections that we don't even want to look at.