The truth is that there is no actual stress or anxiety in the world; it’s your thoughts that create these false beliefs. You can’t package stress, touch it, or see it. There are only people engaged in stressful thinking.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

The story with anorexic girls – nobody works with anorexic girls. That has nothing to do with fashion.

I hold a lot of things in. I’m always making sure everybody is okay. I usually don’t rage; I usually don’t curse. So for me, it’s a great thing to be able to scream and say whatever I want.

I don’t think about the end game. I’ve got lots to occupy my mind. It’s the rage that keeps me going.

I’m not a big fan of psychoanalysis: I think if you have mental problems what you need are good pills. But I do think that if you have thinks that bother you, things that are unresolved, the more that you talk about them, write about them, the less serious they become.

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

The power of our thoughts may never be measured or appreciated, but it became obvious to me as a young boy that there was value and power in being aware of my thoughts and how I expressed myself.

There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy.

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

‚Fame‘ exhausts me.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

We can fear things into existence. Fear looks into the future and imagines the worst that can happen.

Wow, I get to wake up again? Ok. You have to make good with what you’ve got.

Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success.

Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‚to do‘ list.

Drunkenness is temporary suicide.

We need enlightenment, not just individually but collectively, to save the planet. We need to awaken ourselves. We need to practice mindfulness if we want to have a future, if we want to save ourselves and the planet.

I’ve often felt depressed; everyone feels depressed.

If I forget to pray, I can’t get through the day without snapping at people.

I have inhaled, exhaled everything.

I get nervous for everything – literally everything.

Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.

I go through a lot of depression, and I know other people do, too, but I have an outlet that so many people don’t. If you have that inside of you and can’t get it out, what do you do?

We all get weary sometimes, and we tend to think that life is what makes us weary.

I used to let other people’s struggles affect my happiness. If they weren’t happy, there was no way I was going to be happy. The opposite was also true: If I wasn’t happy, I didn’t want anyone around me to be happy.

We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.

Pick the day. Enjoy it – to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come… The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present – and I don’t want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future.

We never look deeply into the quality of a tree; we never really touch it, feel its solidity, its rough bark, and hear the sound that is part of the tree. Not the sound of wind through the leaves, not the breeze of a morning that flutters the leaves, but its own sound, the sound of the trunk and the silent sound of the roots.

Having a bunch of cats around is good. If you’re feeling bad, you just look at the cats, you’ll feel better because they know that everything is just as it is. There’s nothing to get excited about. They just know. They’re saviours.

You can be obsessed with the bad things people say and the good things; either way, you’re obsessed with yourself, and I’m not – you can become unhinged so easily.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.

I say there’re no depressed words just depressed minds.

Without exercise, I don’t feel like my head works right.

I don’t look at my old work. I mean, they made nice books; the books were made without me, the one from last year and the one from this year. I – personally, I’m not interested in my own past. I’m only interested in today – perhaps tomorrow.

Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul.

I don’t know how to live good. I only know how to suffer.

If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.

Jiu Jitsu is a great workout both mentally and physically. You want to be strong for it and flexible for it.

The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.

I love to sit and eat quietly and enjoy each bite, aware of the presence of my community, aware of all the hard and loving work that has gone into my food.

Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.

Buddhism teaches us not to try to run away from suffering. You have to confront suffering. You have to look deeply into the nature of suffering in order to recognize its cause, the making of the suffering.

Sleep is the best meditation.

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

You might not have the things you want, but if you check carefully, you got all you need.

I felt like I had a really bad case of writer’s block… Music is so therapeutic for me that if I can’t get it out, I start feeling bad about myself – a lot of self-loathing.

Life’s too short to deal with other people’s insecurities.

Little by little, not by making big promises, I need to be calmer, read more, spend more time with my loved ones, and be more mindful about nature and environment.

Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.

I wonder how many decisions we make every day. I believe it’s probably hundreds. We decide whether or not to get out of bed, what we’ll eat, what we’ll do, what we’ll think about, what we’ll say… and on and on.

Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.

Relish everything that’s inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.

It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper; so cry away.

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow.

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

Everything’s intentional. It’s just filling in the dots.