“In the way we practice, we don’t say, ‘Hell is bad and heaven is good’ or ‘Get rid of hell and just seek heaven,’ but we encourage ourselves to develop an open heart and an open mind to heaven, hell, to everything.”  Pema Chödrön

“If you know you’re dreaming, can you continue to dream? That’s what the soul does – the soul appreciates that it’s a dream and that it contains the ego.  If you push away the ego, if you cultivate an aversion to that dream, you’re never going to be free because there will be an attachment.”  Ram Dass

“The universe is made up of experiences that are designed to burn out our reactivity, which is our attachments, our clinging — to pain, to pleasure, to fear, to all of it. And as long as there are places where we’re vulnerable, the universe will find ways to confront us with them.  That’s the way the dance is designed.”   Ram Dass

“What if we could recognize our faults and look to see what is beyond them? What if we could see, with great tenderness, the painful unmet needs that have shaped our behaviors?  For many of us, this process is the work of a lifetime…  Yet it begins the moment that we are willing to look at ourselves through the eyes of compassion.”   Tara Brach