The first step in this process of mindfulness is radical self-acceptance .

The origin of the conflict, frustration, and anxiety we experience does not lie in the nature of the world itself but in our distorted conceptions of the world.

Buddhism, I think, is probably facing the single most difficult transition from one historical epoch to another, which is really the transition to modernity.

Consciousness is an emergent, contingent, and impermanent phenomenon. It has no magical capacity to break free from the field of events out of which it springs.

While 'Buddhism' suggests another belief system, 'dharma practice' suggests a course of action. The four ennobling truths are not propositions to believe; they are challenges to act.

What is it that makes a person insist passionately on the existence of metaphysical realities that can be neither demonstrated nor refuted? (176)

In taking life for granted, we fail to notice it.

The problem with certainty is that it is static; it can do little but endlessly reassert itself. Uncertainty, by contrast, is full of unknowns, possibilities, and risks.

The greatest threat to compassion is the temptation to succumb to fantasies of moral superiority.

To embrace suffering culminates in greater empathy, the capacity to feel what it is like for the other to suffer, which is the ground for unsentimental compassion and love.

This body is fragile. It is just flesh. Listen to the heartbeat. Life depends on the pumping of a muscle.

No worse fate can befall a young man or woman than becoming prematurely entrenched in prudence and negation.

If I were to start taking care of my grooming, I would no longer be my own self.

I just love cars; Ive been like that since I was a kid. Its an infatuation because we grew up poor. Cars was something we were always trying to get.

I started making plans, thinking we would get that far.

Unless your campaign has a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.

Death is a name for beauty not in use.

There is universal substance which is divine substance because where else can it be?

When you're a foreigner, at the beginning you are far away from the culture. Then, little by little, you start to interact with people, have friends, have a life, and then you feel more comfortable.

The stories are what no one wants to talk about. So you make up a story because no one is going to tell you the truth.

You can be happy, or you can be right. If you want to be part of a couple and win every argument, you're in trouble.