This moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into what is unknown, uncharted and shaky -- that's called liberation.

Never underestimate the power of compassionately recognizing what's going on.

It is only to the extent that we are willing to expose ourselves again and again to annihilation that we are able to find that part of ourselves that is indestructible.

When I was first married, my husband said I was one of the bravest people he knew. When I asked him why, he said because I was a complete coward but went ahead and did things anyhow.

Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.

To stay with that shakiness-to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge-that is the path of true awakening. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic-this is the spiritual path.

This is the tendency of all living things: to avoid pain and to cling to pleasure.

It's a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately filling up space.

How will we experience the world a month, a year, or five years from now? Will we be even angrier, more grasping and fearful, or will some shift have occurred? This depends entirely on the tendencies we reinforce today.

Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear.

To live is to be willing to die over and over again.

You just can't fly when you're wearing socks, and shoes, and coats, and pants, and underwear. Everything has to go.

Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior's world.

The problem is that the desire to change is fundamentally a form of aggression toward yourself.

You're the only one who knows when you're using things to protect yourself and keep your ego together and when you're opening and letting things fall apart, letting the world come as it is -- working with it rather than struggling against it. You're the only one who knows.

Compassion starts with making friends with ourselves.

That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent, is the first mark of existence. Everything is in process.

It becomes increasingly clear that we won't be free of self-destructive patterns unless we develop a compassionate understanding of what they are.

The essence of generosity is letting go. Pain is always a sign that we are holding on to something -- usually ourselves.

Things are as bad and as good as they seem. There's no need to add anything extra.