“Our values are influenced by whatever absorbs our minds.”

Everyone has a story, and sometimes our egos choose to ignore that. Don’t take everything personally—it is usually not about you.

So people who come to this place, stay here for a while, and then continue their journey. Sounds like a hotel to me.

Most of our communication is nonverbal.

It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.

Every night when I’m falling asleep, I say to myself, I am relaxed, energized, and focused. I am calm, enthusiastic, and productive.

Monks understand that routine frees your mind, but the biggest threat to that freedom is monotony. People complain about their poor memories, but I’ve heard it said that we don’t have a retention problem, we have an attention problem.

Never trust a spiritual leader who cannot dance.

Actually, the greatest detachment is being close to everything and not letting it consume and own you. That’s real strength.

Sometimes we can trace our fears through the actions we take, and sometimes it’s the actions we’re reluctant to take

Cancers of the Mind: Comparing, Complaining, Criticizing.

We can’t stop our parents from dying, but we use the fear to remind us to spend more time with them.

Tracking my fear of exam results and the other branch fears that appeared led me to the root: fearing I couldn’t make my parents happy

Your dharma has to fill a need in the world

You don’t get to be a jerk just because you’re skilled.

I am happy about who I am becoming. I am open to all opportunities and possibilities. I am worthy of real love. I am ready to serve with all I have.

Our search is never for a thing, but for the feeling we think the thing will give us.

When my dad played me ‘Walking Man,’ I heard those chord changes and that melody, it completely blew me away. Maybe you wouldn’t really hear the James Taylor influences in my music, but they’re definitely buried in there.

The more you care about the powerless, the more power you have. The more you serve those with no influence, the more influence God gives you. The more you humble yourself, the more you’re honored by others.

There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.

The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years.

You can’t influence people you refuse to associate with.

Whatever I do, I do with the greatest love that I have in me. Try this, and you will see that you do not become fatigued at all. Love is one of the greatest stimulants to the will. Under the influence of love the will can do almost anything.

It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence.

We control fifty percent of a relationship. We influence one hundred percent of it.