“Don’t burden others with your expectations.  Understanding their limitations can inspire compassion instead of disappointment, ensuring beneficial and workable relationships.  Remember that you have only a short time together.  Be grateful for each day you share.” Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche (Change of Heart: The Bodhisattva Peace Training of Chagdud Tulku)

“Ultimately, only a ‘person’ has solid preferences.  A consciousness emptied of the illusion of a separate self simply recognizes what contains the most benefit for all and acts accordingly.” Bentinho Massaro

“Teach us that even as the wonder of the stars in the heavens only reveals itself in the silence of the night, so the wonder of life reveals itself in the silence of the heart.  In the silence of our heart we may see the scattered leaves of all the universe bound by love.”  The Bhagavad Gita

“Craving creates tunnel vision: we see only what we yearn for.  Mindfulness allows us to see that and much more, giving us the choice not to act on our desires.  The one-pointedness with which we fixated on the object of desire can be turned to an object of contemplation, such as the breath.”  Joan Duncan Oliver (Drink and A Man)

“But if you try to escape from this world merely by leaving the city and hiding yourself in solitude, you will only take the city with you into solitude; and yet you can be entirely out of the world while remaining in the midst of it, if you let God set you free from your own selfishness and if you live for love alone.” Thomas Merton (New Seeds of Contemplation)

“Every positive change – every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness – involves a rite of passage.  Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation.  I have never found an exception.” Dan Millman (No Ordinary Moments: A Peaceful Warrior’s Guide to Daily Life)

“At some point, all of our concepts and ideas must yield to our actual experience.  Words and ideas are only useful if they are put into practice.  When we stop discussing things and begin to realize the teachings in our own life, a moment comes when we realize that our life is the path, and we no longer rely merely on the forms of practice.” Thich Nhat Hanh (The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings)

“At times of writing I never think what I have said before. My aim is not to be consistent with my previous statements on a given question but to be consistent with truth as it may present itself to me at a given moment.  The result has been that I have grown from truth to truth.”  Mahatma Gandhi

“When we feel passion for something, it is because we are remembering what it was that we came here to do. The more passion we feel, the more in alignment with Source we are, allowing this energy to pour through us with no hesitation.  This is the way it was meant to be.”  Karen Bishop

“Survival is for the human animal; fear the motivation. For the spiritual being survival is irrelevant.  Curiosity, compassion and creativity are the name of the game; unconditional love the motivation.”  Peter Shepherd