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

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

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.

Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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 root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have.

The essence of bravery is being without self-deception.

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

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

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