“As our kindness for ourselves grows, so does our kindness for other people.”

Whatever happens in your life, joyful or painful, do not be swept away by reactivity. Be patient with yourself and don’t lose your sense of perspective.

All the wars, all the hatred, all the ignorance in the world come out of being so invested in our opinions.

We have a choice. We can spend our whole life suffering because we can’t relax with how things really are, or we can relax and embrace the open-endedness of the human situation, which is fresh, unfixated, unbiased.

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing?

The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment.

If you follow your heart, you’re going to find that it is often extremely inconvenient.

It isn’t what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it’s what we say to ourselves about what happens.

If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.

The future is completely open and we are writing it moment to moment.

So many of us start along the spiritual path because we are suffering. But you must realize that for real healing to occur, there must first be deep compassion for yourself, especially the parts of yourself you dislike or consider ugly.

Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.

Be kinder to yourself. And then let your kindness flood the world.

The central question of a warrior’s training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort.

When things fall apart in your life, you feel as if your whole world is crumbling. But actually it’s your fixed identity that’s crumbling. And as Chögyam Trungpa used to tell us, that’s cause for celebration.

Feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back.

It’s only when caterpillarness is done that one becomes a butterfly. That again is part of this paradox. You cannot rip away caterpillarness. The whole trip occurs in an unfolding process of which we have no control.

A more immediate issue concerns North Korea, to which Bismarck’s nineteenth-century aphorism surely applies: We live in a wondrous time, in which the strong is weak because of his scruples and the weak grows strong because of his audacity.

It’s very hard to grow because it’s difficult to let go of the models of ourselves in which we’ve invested so heavily.

Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama.

There is no growth in the comfort zone.

My sun and my moon signs are mostly Cancer – it’s really strong. We’re deeply intuitive and sentimental. I really like to take care of people, nurturing them. I’m very passionate about the things I do and like to see people I love grow.

I ain’t want my kids to grow up and call me Thug. I don’t want anybody to kind of look at me like that.

What you meet in another being is the projection of your own level of evolution.