There is no end to the opening up that is possible for a human being.

I can't censor myself; it's really important for me to say how I feel.

Art gives me an outlet where I can be aggressive in a world where I usually can't be.

I don't want to have to compromise my morals in order to make a living.

I like creating beauty out of scary things.

Whenever we say a person's name, notice whether we have stated more than a fact. For example, the judgment, 'She's thoughtless' goes beyond the facts 'She said she'd call me and she didn't.

Meditation is not about doing something

To some degree we all find life difficult, perplexing, and oppressive. Even when it goes well, as it may for a time, we worry that it probably won't keep on that way.

None of us would choose to be Sisyphus; yet in a sense, we all are.

Trust in things being as they are is the secret of life. But we don't want to hear that. I can absolutely trust that in the next year my life is going to be changed, different, yet always just the way it is.

You cannot avoid paradise. You can only avoid seeking it.

We learn in our guts, not just in our brain, that a life of joy is not in seeking happiness, but in experiencing and simply being the circumstances of our life as they are; not in fulfilling personal wants, but in fulfilling the needs of life.

There are many people in the world who feel that if only they had a bigger car, a nicer house, better vacations, a more understanding boss, or a more interesting partner, then their life would work. We all go through that one. Slowly we wear out most of our 'if onlies.

We have self-centered minds which get us into plenty of trouble. If we do not come to understand the error in the way we think, our self-awareness, which is our greatest blessing, is also our downfall.

We are always doing something to cover up our basic existential anxiety. Some people live that way until the day they die.

Life is a second-by-second miracle.

An old Zen rule of thumb is not to answer until one has been asked three times.

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.

We're constantly waking up to what we're about, what we're really doing in our lives. And the fact is, that's painful. But there's no possibility of freedom without this pain.