“But you cannot have harmony without a commitment to ethical behavior. It’s the fence that keeps out the goats that will eat all the young shoots in your garden.”

Meditation is not about feeling a certain way. It’s about feeling the way you feel.

When awareness embraces the senses, it enlivens them.

Perhaps the most “spiritual” thing any of us can do is simply to look through our own eyes, see with eyes of wholeness, and act with integrity and kindness.

From the point of view of the meditative traditions the entire society is suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Perhaps we just need little reminders from time to time that we are already dignified, deserving, worthy.

Arriving someplace more desirable at some future time is an illusion. This is it.

Just stopping, is a radical act of sanity and love.

Voluntary simplicity means going fewer places in one day rather than more, seeing less so I can see more, doing less so I can do more, acquiring less so I can have more.

The real meditation practice is how we live our lives from moment to moment to moment.

We must be willing to encounter darkness and despair when they come up and face them, over and over again if need be, without running away or numbing ourselves in the thousands of ways we conjure up to avoid the unavoidable.

Living in a chronic state of unawareness can cause us to miss much of what is most beautiful and meaningful in our lives.

Healing is a coming to terms with things as they are, rather than struggling to force them to be as they once were, or as we would like them to be, to feel secure or to have what we sometimes think of as our own way.

Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time.

When you pay attention to boredom it gets unbelievably interesting.

Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.

Mindfulness is not about getting anywhere else.

I hold one thing dearer than all else: my commitment to my son.

Make small commitments and keep them. Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic. Be a part of the solution, not the problem.

If you love something and if you’re committed and diligent – the things happen!

Paintings are seldom guilty and often framed for crimes they did not commit. Some cover holes-holes in walls, holes in lives. Some make holes-in wallets, holes in hearts in negative space.

In life there is nothing more common than talent and intelligence. What is missing is passion, persistence, commitment, and dedication.

Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one’s luck.

Almost as many inhumanities are committed in the name of love as in the name of religion.

Being of service is not enough. You must become a servant of the people. When you do, you can demand their commitment in return.