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

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.

Feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we're holding back.

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.

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

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 greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment.

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

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.

Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

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.

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals.

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

Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty. We can't simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment.

The essence of bravery is being without self-deception.

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

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

Sticking with uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic—this is the spiritual path.

The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.

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