The essence of his teaching was that any factor can be understood as compulsive to the degree that it obscures our ability to see things as they are, without judgment. If someone is yelling at us, for example, we rarely take the time to distinguish between the bare recognition “Oh, this person is raising his voice and saying such and such words” an

Clarity is a sense of being able to see into the nature of things as though all reality were a landscape lit up on a brilliantly sunny day without clouds. Everything appears distinct and everything makes sense. Even disturbing thoughts and emotions have their place in this brilliant landscape. Nonconceptuality is an experience of the total openness

But it takes great patience to learn how to see such possibilities. In fact, it takes great patience to see.

the true nature of all living creatures is already completely free from suffering and endowed with perfect happiness: In seeking happiness and avoiding unhappiness, regardless of how we go about it, we’re all just expressing the essence of who we are.

If we were to make a list of people we don’t like … we would find a lot about those aspects of ourselves that we can’t face. —

It’s so easy to think that we’re the only ones who suffer, while other people are somehow immune to pain, as though they’d been born with some kind of special knowledge about being happy that, through some cosmic accident, we never received. Thinking in this way, we make our own problems seem much bigger than they really are.

When you work with unpleasant thoughts in this way, they become assets to mental stability rather than liabilities—like adding weight to the bar when you’re exercising in a gym. You’re developing psychological muscles to cope with greater and greater levels of stress.

In fact, the best rule is to spend less time meditating than you think you can. If you think you can practice for four minutes, stop at three; if you think you can practice for five minutes, stop at four. Practicing in this way, you’ll find yourself eager to begin again. Rather than thinking you’ve accomplished your goal, leave yourself wanting mor

When you come up against resistance, just remember the story about how the old cow pees while walking along throughout the day. That should be enough to bring a smile to your face and remind you that practicing is as easy, and as necessary, as relieving yourself.