The essence of bravery is being without self-deception.

Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts.

The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment.

Rather than letting our negativity get the better of us, we could acknowledge that right now we feel like a piece of shit and not be squeamish about taking a good look.

Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.

The spiritual journey is not about heaven and finally getting to a place that's really swell.

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.

As long as our orientation is toward perfection or success, we will never learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find compassion.

The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought.

The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with.

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.

Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.

If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.

We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.

When things fall apart and we're on the verge of we know not what, the test of each of us is to stay on that brink and not concretize.

The more we witness our emotional reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain.

You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.