My first encounter with Buddhist dharma would be in my early 20s. Like most young men, I was not particularly happy.

The reality is, we can change. We can change ourselves. We can change our minds. We can change our hearts. And therefore the universe changes.

I don't regret anything. Everything happens for a reason-it's part of the healing process. Life is a healing process.

Always walk towards open doors. And if they slam shut in your face, kick that sucker in and keep going.

I can’t remember that I was ever looking for anything. I was waiting for something to touch me. It’s like, I’ll be open to it, and see if it moves me. There has to be a "falling in love" moment.

In saving Tibet, you save the possibility that we are all brothers, sisters.

Everyone responds to kindness.

There are times when telling lies are not a bad thing. It can be a compassionate thing. But to make it benign, you have to be aware of your compassionate reasons for telling that lie.

I'm younger than I once was. Internally. Less self-conscious. Less insecure.

I don't think that bravery is about skin. Bravery is about a willingness to show emotional need.

People get offended by animal rights campaigns. It's ludicrous. It's not as bad as mass animal death in a factory.

Consciousness is the awareness of the interaction and interdependence among mind, body, spirit, and the universe where it resides.

Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee rebuke a wise man and he will love thee.

If you think that you are where you are just because you worked hard, it is easy to become self-righteous and make classist moral judgments about others.

One of the most insane environments I have ever spent time in is a gun range. There we are, all in a line, armed to the teeth, firing away.

Letting go does not mean not caring about things. It means caring about them in a flexible and wise way.

Always go onward; returning to a favored place you will only find your old footsteps washed away.

Why in hell can't the Army do it if the Marines can. They are the same kind of men; why can't they be like Marines.

You can't base your decisions on anyone's opinion but yours and God's.

The college graduate is presented with a sheepskin to cover his intellectual nakedness.

I can't help it. I always focus in on the negative.