Finding the courage to go to the places that scare us cannot happen without compassionate inquiry into the workings of ego... Openness doesn't come from resisting our fears but from getting to know them well.

It has a lot to do with developing patience, not with the check-out person so much, but with your own pain that arises, the rawness and the vulnerability, and sending some kind of warmth and love to that rawness and soreness. I think that's how we have to practice.

Impermanence is a principle of harmony. When we don't struggle against it, we are in harmony with reality.

When we are willing to stay even a moment with uncomfortable energy, we gradually learn not to fear it.

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

I can't overestimate the importance of accepting ourselves exactly as we are right now, not as we wish we were or think we ought to be.

Pain is not a punishment; pleasure is not a reward.