“All our lives long, we identify with our thoughts, our self-image, or our feelings. We have to find a way to get behind this view to discover the face we had before we were born. We must discover who we are in God, who we’ve always been… This is the first goal of contemplation.” Fr. Richard Rohr (Nonviolence: Weekly Summary)

“Any concept of higher truth creates hierarchy, and with that, authority, boundaries, dualism, and opposition. What various religious traditions, including Buddhism, call truth is better described as a way of experiencing things.” Ken McLeod (Something from Nothing)

“We have a choice between two very different ways to meet what arises in experience. The first is to rely on explanations. We interpret our experiences in life according to a set of deeply held assumptions. … The other way is to open and be willing to receive, not control, whatever arises – that is, not only allow but embrace every sensation, feeling, and thought, everything we experience. In this approach, we allow our experience to challenge our assumptions.” Ken McLeod (Something from Nothing)

“This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all!” Rumi

“I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope for hope would be hope for the wrong things; wait without love for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith but the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.” T.S. Eliot (Four Quartets)

“The more we try to make life conform to our desires, the more we struggle and the more we suffer. The only way out of this vicious cycle is to accept what arises, completely: in other words, do nothing. Ken McLeod (Something from Nothing)

“When you internalize the gaze of others, you’re a prisoner of what, in reality, you’re reading into their gaze – an uncertain process at best.” Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Under Your Skin)

“Open the door wide to your fear and anxiety. Touch it. Be curious about it. Then let it go. See the contrast between your anxiety and the space around it.” Carolyn Gimian (Face Fear and Keep Going)

“Spiritual thoughts are infinite in their potentiality, each one being measure by the life, intelligence, and substance with which it is expressed… Every word is a thought in activity, and when spoken it goes out as a vibratory force that is registered in the all providing substance…” Charles Fillmore (Prosperity: Spiritual Secrets to an Abundant Life)

“The unique lesson of chaos is that decisive steps are happening all the time. Any moment is one that can have incredible consequences. A small pressure applied at the right moment to a sad friend’s hand makes all the difference, while the same pressure, applied a moment later, makes no difference at all.” Barbara Roether (The Heartbeat Sutra)