The essence of practice is always the same: instead of falling prey to a chain reaction of revenge or self-hatred, we gradually learn to catch the emotional reaction and drop the story lines.
Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing.
Lower your standards and relax as it is.
A warrior accepts that we can never know what will happen to us next.
The central question of a warrior’s training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort.
When we are willing to stay even a moment with uncomfortable energy, we gradually learn not to fear it.
It isn’t the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it’s how we relate to the things that happen to us that causes us to suffer.
We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.
Every moment is incredibly unique and fresh, and when we drop into the moment, as meditation allows us to do, we learn how to truly taste this tender and mysterious life that we share together.
The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.
All the terrible things we do to ourselves and others from alcoholism to character assignation to abuse to murder come from one cause: the inability to stay present with an uncomfortable feeling in the body and seek short-term relief.
We don’t set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people’s hearts.
Feel the wounded heart that’s underneath the addiction, self-loathing, or anger.
Feel the feelings and drop the story.
Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. Why? Because it is all we ever have.
At the root of all the harm we cause is ignorance.
Softening what is rigid in our hearts...
Hell is just resistance to life.
If we Pause and breathe in and out, then we can have the experience of timeless presence, of the inexpressible wisdom and goodness of our own minds. We can look at the world with fresh eyes and hear things with fresh ears.
The best spiritual instruction is when you wake up in the morning and say, ‘I wonder what’s going to happen today.’ And then carry that kind of curiosity through your life.