When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (Shambhala Classics)

We are not striving to make pain go away or to become a better person. In fact, we are giving up control altogether and letting concepts and ideals fall apart.

It’s the practice of not immediately filling up space just because there’s a gap.

We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we’ll be more awake in our lives.

Rather than indulge or reject our experience, we can somehow let the energy of the emotion, the quality of what we’re feeling, pierce us to the heart.

Rather than realizing that it takes death for there to be birth, we just fight against the fear of death.

The spiritual journey involves going beyond hope and fear, stepping into unknown territory, continually moving forward. The most important aspect of being on the spiritual path may be to just keep moving.

all addictions stem from this moment when we meet our edge and we just can’t stand

Basically, disappointment, embarrassment, and all these places where we just cannot feel good are a sort of death.

The most precious opportunity presents itself when we come to the place where we think we can’t handle whatever is happening.