I think Shambhala can be a very strong force as a social example of how you can try to live a life balanced in terms of both the spiritual and the secular.

We suffer because we want life to be different from what it is. We suffer because we try to make pleasurable what is painful, to make solid what is fluid, to make permanent what is always changing.

Our power comes not from suppressing others but from uplifting them.

This is bravery: using the challenge of daily life to sharpen our mind and open our heart.

Whatever we do lays a seed in our deepest consciousness, and one day that seed will grow.

Movement is good for the body. Stillness is good for the mind.

If we do not appreciate the sensitivity and subtlety of the human heart, how can we appreciate the sensitivity and subtlety of the natural world?

The self-assured strength that grows from knowing that we already have what we need makes us gentle, because we are no longer desperate.

Like gravity, karma is so basic we often don't even notice it.

We humans have come to a crossroads in our history: we can either destroy the world or create a good future.

The most outrageous thing we can do in this world is to accept what happens and fly with it.

Having to admit that you are depressed makes one feel less than. Broken. Yes, that's what it is. Broken.

To abandon language is to stop/creating a place other than your own life/in which to live. It is to enter/the terrible certainty of the flesh. Even god/is only possible through language.

Parenthood...It's about guiding the next generation, and forgiving the last.

And in the fearless, reckless pursuit of intimate love, it is not the destination it's the journey.

What's most interesting about some books is the question: How did this crap ever get published?

You're more than a story.

If you look throughout human history ... the central epiphany of every religious tradition always occurs in the wilderness.

Perhaps the way with any obsession is to ignore it simply. Not to fight it, since it draws strength from any contact with us, whether hostile or friendly.

I have no idea what the next project will be and if there's a next project. I don't even know if we're all going to be here tomorrow, but I'm pretty optimistic.

Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.