Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
If you ask why we meditate, I would say it's so we can become more flexible and tolerant to the present moment.
Let difficulty transform you. And it will. In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away.
At some point, we realize that what we do for ourselves benefits others, and what we do for others benefits us.
Surrendering, letting go of possessiveness, and complete nonattachment-all are synonyms for accumulating merit.
All ego really is, is our opinions, which we take to be solid, real, and the absolute truth about how things are.
Life is like that. We don't know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don't know.
Everything in our lives has the potential to wake us up or put us to sleep. Allowing it to awaken us is up to us.
Sitting meditation gives us a way to move closer to our thoughts and emotions and to get in touch with our bodies.
Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both...Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both.
The wisdom, the strength, the confidence - the awakened heart and mind are always accessible -- here, now, always.
While we are sitting in meditation, we are simply exploring humanity and all of creation in the form of ourselves.
It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play.
Resistance to unwanted circumstances has the power to keep those circumstances alive and well for a very long time.
Like all explorers, we are drawn to discover what's out there without knowing yet if we have the courage to face it.
We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we’ll be more awake in our lives.
In meditation, you learn how to get out of your own way long enough for there to be room for your wisdom to manifest
In the end, that's what we all need more than anything else: to be there for each other, in every kind of situation.
What if rather than being disheartened by the ambiguity, the uncertainty of life, we accepted it and relaxed into it?
Patience is the training in abiding with the restlessness of our energy and letting things evolve at their own speed.
The central question of a warrior's training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort.
Share the wealth. Be generous with your joy. Give away what you most want. Be generous with your insights and delights.
By not knowing, not hoping to know and not acting like we know what's happening, we begin to access our inner strength.
The essence of generosity is letting go. Pain is always a sign that we are holding on to something - usually ourselves.
Deep down in the human spirit, there is a reservoir of courage. It is always available, always waiting to be discovered.
We can begin to open our hearts to others when we have no hope of getting anything back. We just do it for its own sake.
Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us.
If you work with your mind, instead of trying to change everything on the outside, that's how your temper will cool down.
The root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have.
According to the Buddhist belief, you can go on and on indefinitely, so you see your life as just a brief moment in time.
Each time you stay present with fear and uncertainty, you're letting go of a habitual way of finding security and comfort.
Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.
A heartfelt sense of aspiring cuts through negativity about yourself; it cuts through the heavy trips you lay on yourself.
The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong. What a relief.
It's not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share.
So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.
Being satisfied with what we already have is a magical golden key to being alive in a full, unrestricted, and inspired way.
When there's a disappointment, I don't know if it's the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure.
Our neurosis and our wisdom are made out of the same material. If you throw out your neurosis, you also throw out your wisdom.
We're afraid that this anger or sorrow or loneliness is going to last forever... Instead, acting it out is what makes it last.
The second noble truth says that this resistance is the...mechanism of what we call ego, that resisting life causes suffering.
You build inner strength through embracing the totality of your experience, both the delightful parts and the difficult parts.
We are undoing a pattern... It's the human pattern: we project onto the world a zillion possibilities of attaining resolution.
Patience has nothing to do with suppression. In fact, it has everything to do with a gentle, honest relationship with yourself.
Determination means to use every challenge you meet as an opportunity to open your heart and soften, determined to not withdraw.
That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent, is the first mark of existence. Everything is in process.
It's helpful to remind yourself that meditation is about opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing.
There's something delicious about finding fault with something. And that can be including finding fault with one's self, you know?
This genuine heart of sadness can teach us great compassion. It can humble us when we're arrogant and soften us when we are unkind.
This moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into what is unknown, uncharted and shaky - that's called liberation.
Although we have the potential to experience the freedom of a butterfly, we mysteriously prefer the small and fearful cocoon of ego.