Ego is like a room of your own, a room with a view with the temperature and the smells and the music that you like. You want it your own way. You'd just like to have a little peace, you'd like to have a little happiness, you know, just gimme a break.

Loving kindness towards ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything. It means we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

Tonglen is a way for you to be with people who need you - beginning with yourself.

We don't set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts.

Obstacles are our friends: they teach us where we're stuck.

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

All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do.