Caught in the self-centered dream, only suffering; holding to self-centered thoughts, exactly the dream; each moment, life as it is, the only teacher; being just this moment, compassion's way.

We have to face the pain we have been running from. In fact, we need to learn to rest in it and let its searing power transform us.

Enlightenment is not something you achieve. It is the absence of something. All your life you have been going forward after something, pursuing some goal. Enlightenment is dropping all that.

Meditation practice is simply moving from a life of hurting myself and others to a life of not hurting myself and others.

But opinions, judgments, memories, dreaming about the future—ninety percent of the thoughts spinning around in our heads have no essential reality.

With unfailing kindness, your life always presents what you need to learn. Whether you stay home or work in an office or whatever, the next teacher is going to pop right up.

All I can be is who I am right now; I can experience that and work with it. That's all I can do. The rest is the dream of the ego.

It's of no use to look back and say, "I should have been different." At any given moment, we are the way we are, and we see what we're able to see. For that reason, guilt is always inappropriate.

Joy is being willing for things to be as they are.

There is one thing in life that you can always rely on: life being as it is.

Practice has to be a process of endless disappointment. We have to see that everything we demand (and even get) eventually disappoints us. This discovery is our teacher.

Then I perceived, what I had never thought, that all these staring houses were not alike, but different one from another, because they held different dreams.

The more history I learn, the more the world fills up with stories.

If you can successfully embrace the Anti-Matter version of yourself, Time would cease to exist for You. You are God!

Ask yourself the question: If I don't do it, who will? If you find the answer is no one will do it, then do it yourself.

The soul is steady just waiting to be fedand to blossom.

The Enlightenment is not a nightmare, nor is it something that comes easily to us. It is an aspiration - and a good one!

Diplomats do not know how to negotiate, they only know how to keep their job.

It isn't that inspiration doesn't exist, but it comes only with writing.

If two people are able to communicate their feelings without words you know it's true love

The smack of California earth shall linger on the palate of your grandson.