Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent, is the first mark of existence. Everything is in process.
Determination means to use every challenge you meet as an opportunity to open your heart and soften, determined to not withdraw.
The message we have internalized is clear - we are what we do and what we own, not what we are inside ourselves. Where it counts!
It's helpful to remind yourself that meditation is about opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing.
I begin to understand as never before that holiness is made of dailiness, of living life as it comes to me, not as I insist it be.
For thirty years, Jesus never allowed his divinity to manifest itself. He was infinitely superior to everyone but never showed it.
There's something delicious about finding fault with something. And that can be including finding fault with one's self, you know?
Prophets are those who take life as it is and expand it. They refuse to shrink a vision of tomorrow to the boundaries of yesterday.
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.
The approach is that the best way to use unwanted circumstances on the path of enlightenment is not to resist but to lean into them.
Until we stop clinging to the concept of good and evil, the world will continue to manifest as friendly goddesses and harmful demons.
Awareness of the sacred in life is what holds our world together, and the lack of awareness of the sacred is what is tearing it apart.
Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic-this is the spiritual path.
If you aren't feeding the fire of anger or the fire of craving by talking to yourself, then the fire doesn't have anything to feed on.
Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.
I can't overestimate the importance of accepting ourselves exactly as we are right now, not as we wish we were or think we ought to be.
Tonglen practice begins to dissolve the illusion that each of us is alone with this personal suffering that no one else can understand.
Ego is something that you come to know - something that you befriend by not acting out or by repressing all the feelings that you feel.
Meditation is not about getting out of ourselves or achieving something better. It is about getting in touch with what you already are.
If it's painful, you become willing not just to endure it but also to let it awaken your heart and soften you. You learn to embrace it.
Healing and miracles have been a mystery to men of all times. To some, the phenomenon is frightening, while others find it exhilarating.
We give it up and just look directly with compassion and humor at who we are. Then loneliness is no threat and heartache, no punishment.
The Process of becoming unstuck requires tremendous bravery, because basically we are completely changing our way of perceiving reality.
Patience takes courage. It is not an ideal state of calm. In fact, when we practice patience we will see our agitation far more clearly.
Hope is not a matter of waiting for things outside of us to get better. It is about getting better inside about what is going on outside.
Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.
Jesus asks me to go to him when I am overburdened. He did not promise to take away those burdens, for I must carry mine as he carried his.
True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings.
To cultivate equanimity we practice catching ourselves when we feel attraction or aversion, before it hardens into grasping or negativity.
Most spiritual experiences begin with suffering. They begin with groundlessness. They begin when the rug has been pulled out from under us.
We feel that we have to be right so that we can feel good... The whole right and wrong business closes us down and makes our world smaller.
To be contemplative we must become converted to the consciousness that makes us one with the universe, in tune with the cosmic voice of God.
As we learn to have compassion for ourselves, the circle of compassion for others - what and whom we can work with, and how - becomes wider.
When we protect ourselves so we won't feel pain, that protection becomes like armor, like armor that imprisons the softness of of the heart.
What happens with you when you begin to feel uneasy, unsettled, queasy? Notice the panic, notice when you instantly grab for something. (51)
The painful thing is that when we buy into disapproval,we are practicing disapproval. When we buy into harshness,we are practicing harshness.
But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.
When souls really touch, it is forever. Then space and time disappear, and all that remains is the consciousness that we are not alone in life.
Only in eternity shall we see the beauty of the soul, and only then shall we realize what great things were accomplished by interior suffering.
Every moment of life is like a sacrament in which we can receive God. It is a channel through which God speaks to us, forms us, and directs us.
It is good to have an intellectual awareness of our dependence upon God - to understand how great He is and how very small we are in His sight.
One can appreciate & celebrate each moment — there’s nothing more sacred. There’s nothing more vast or absolute. In fact, there’s nothing more!
When I try to be patient on my own, my patience is forced and short-lived. It is obvious to everyone that I am desperately trying to be patient.
We can drop the fundamental hope that there is a better "me" who one day will emerge. We can't just jump over ourselves as if we were not there.
He will take good care to provide what is necessary for our sanctification, provided we are careful to accept everything according to His designs.
Without giving up hope—that there’s somewhere better to be, that there’s someone better to be—we will never relax with where we are or who we are.
It becomes increasingly clear that we won’t be free of self-destructive patterns unless we develop a compassionate understanding of what they are.
Trying to run away is never the answer to being a fully human. Running away from the immediacy of our experience is like preferring death to life.