TO CUT THROUGH problems, we need problems.

Happiness and unhappiness are not primarily created by the material world or the physical body. First and foremost, they are decisions of the mind.

The mind is the source of all experience, and by changing the direction of the mind, we can change the quality of everything we experience.

When you transform your mind, everything you experience is transformed.

If you don’t try to stop whatever is going on in your mind, but merely observe it, eventually you’ll begin to feel a tremendous sense of relaxation, a vast sense of openness within your mind - which is in fact your natural mind, the naturally unperturbed background against which various thoughts come and go.

Emotional states are fairly quick bursts of neuronal gossip. Traits, on the other hand, are more like the neuronal equivalent of committed relationships.

When you see your own desire to be happy, you can't avoid seeing the same desire in others.