“The second noble truth says that this resistance is the mechanism of what we call ego, that resisting life causes suffering.”

Resisting what is happening is a major cause of suffering.

Meditation isn’t really about getting rid of thoughts, it’s about changing the pattern of grasping on to things, which in our everyday experience is our thoughts.

One of the deepest habitual patterns that we have is to feel that now is not enough.

When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into it’s dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment.

We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.

Obstacles are our friends: they teach us where we’re stuck.

Use what seems like poison as medicine. Use your personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings.

Don’t worry about achieving. Don’t worry about perfection. Just be there each moment as best you can.

Every moment is unique, unknown, completely fresh.

Our true nature is like a precious jewel: although it may be temporarily buried in mud, it remains completely brilliant and unaffected. We simply have to uncover it.

All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do.

We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.

Each person’s life is like a mandala – a vast, limitless circle. We stand in the center of our own circle, and everything we see, hear and think forms the mandala of our life … everything that shows up in your mandala is a vehicle for your awakening.

It isn’t the things that are happening to us that cause us to suffer, it’s what we say to ourselves about the things that are happening. The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

Openness doesn’t come from resisting our fears but rather from getting to know them well.

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.

The ego does not, cannot live in the present, because the present is real and the ego is false – they never meet.

Show me success without ego!

I think sometimes you have to see a physical manifestation of your dream. Otherwise you have to hope, pray and try to conjure something in your mind to feel like it’s possible.

Within me lies an abundance of love that your ego was too blind to see.

Asking for other’s guidance helps you see what you may not be able to see. It’s always important to check your ego and ask for help.

People with a sense of humor tend to be less egocentric and more realistic in their view of the world and more humble in moments of success and less defeated in times of travail.

Many people around the President have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos.

Got a broken ego, broken heart.