we are all capable of eventually seeing our life as it is. If we think that insight is as rare as diamonds, it’s because we aren’t ready to face what’s already right in front of us. If we do have one of one of those rare experiences, what we see is that everything is a diamond, everything is revealing right here and now the truth about our life. It

First, meditation practices that aim at cultivating samadhi, or states of clear, thought-free concentration, all too often end up fostering emotional dissociation and avoidance. Thus, rather than engage and work through the manifestations of fear, anxiety, anger, and self-centeredness as they emerge, meditation can create an oasis or bubble of clar

Or we could say that kensho is like taking off tight shoes—we feel an intense, immediate relief that is proportional to the constriction we had put on ourselves.

No matter how much we look outside of ourselves for what’s missing, we always will have to come back to the question of what’s missing in the first place, and why we think we don’t have it. What has stood in our way? Almost always we conclude that there is something wrong with us as we are. That is why we have been unable to achieve what we want or

We have to experience the inseparability of the delusion and enlightenment, not try to eliminate one and stay always attached to the other.

A curative fantasy is a personal myth that we use to explain what we think is wrong with us and our lives and what we imagine is going to make it all better.

We are all practicing perfectly—everyone is simply being who they are—how could anyone get it wrong? We all need to make a greater effort, to practice harder, moment after moment, to stay awake, to stay aware, to pay attention. Wherever you are: feel the wind. Shake your leaves!

We can only become compassionate toward our life and toward those around us when we are no longer preoccupied with trying to control the uncontrollable.

Everybody knows it, but almost everybody is deluded into thinking there’s something more to learn, something hidden and esoteric that is revealed only to a special few. Only after years of searching do we find that there’s nothing more to find. Will we be relieved or disappointed? What is there to gain from practice, after all? We realize that our