“The direct route is to let reality be the guide to your needs — “What I need is what I have.” This is not something to believe; it’s the way things are right now, whether you believe it or not.”  Byron Katie

“You do not need to believe in Reality for it to be true, but you do need to believe in illusions to make them seem ’true’.” Joel Wright

“Your mind is always wrong no matter what it thinks because thinking is not of God. The closest your mind is capable of coming to truth is in realizing that there must be a better way.”  Joel Wright

“In an age where there is much talk about ‘being yourself’ I reserve to myself the right to forget about being myself, since in any case there is little chance of my being anybody else. Rather it seems to me that when one is too intent on ‘being yourself’ he runs the risk of impersonating a shadow.”   Thomas Merton

“What is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as ‘play’ is perhaps what He Himself takes most seriously.”  Thomas Merton

“When you are at the top you only see shadows and when you’re at the bottom you are blinded by the light; but from the middle everything is pleasing – day and night.” Robert Wesley Miller

“Fear-based beliefs are creatures of the dark. They are sustained outside the light of awareness and they dissipate upon mindful inspection.  … The ultimate purpose of inquiry is that it allows us to pause, rather than ride along on the habitual track of our assumptions about reality.  In the space of a pause, truth can shine through.”  Tara Brach

“Mindfulness supports the moment-to-moment intention to not cause harm, to be kind, and to renounce those thoughts and actions that lead to heedlessness. Without wise intention and wise understanding, mindfulness is aimless, and therefore not the Buddha’s mindfulness.”   Phillip Moffitt

“There is a teaching that says that behind all hardening and tightening and rigidity of the heart, there’s always fear. But if you touch fear, behind fear there is a soft spot.  If you touch that soft spot, you find the vast blue sky.  You find that which is ineffable, ungraspable, and unbiased, that which can support and awaken us at any time.”   Pema Chödrön

“A keen awareness of the impermanence of things can protect us from the pain of self-righteousness, arrogance, ignorance, greed, and ultimately, fear itself.”  Jeff Foster