Whenever you think that your needs are not being met, you’re telling the story of a future

No one has ever been able to control his thinking, although people may tell the story of how they have. I don't let go of my thoughts-I meet them with understanding. Then they let go of me.

Money is not my business; my thinking is my business. I don't have any other business.

If you are an enemy to your own mind, other people have to become enemies too, sooner or later. Until you understand, until you can love the thoughts that appear in your mind, then you can love the rest of us. You work with the projector -the mind - not the projected world. I can't really love you until I question the mind that thinks it sees you outside itself . . .

If our thinking is clear, how could work or money be the problem? Our thinking is all we need to change.

I love what I think, and I'm never tempted to believe it. Thoughts are like the wind or the leaves on the trees or the raindrops falling. They're not personal, they don't belong to us, they just come and go. When they're met with understanding, they're friends.

When you think that someone or something other than yourself needs to change, you're mentally out of your business.

As long as you think that the cause of your problem is “out there”—as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering—the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you’re suffering in paradise.

Thinking that what you want equals what's best for you is a dead end.

It's not the problem that causes our suffering; it's our thinking about the problem.

Realizing that people should lie when they do makes me a little more open-minded, a little more tolerant, when my child or my partner lies.

I would go out into the desert. The desert was my teacher. I didn't know about gurus and wise people-I wasn't a reader.

When you do The Work, you see who you are by seeing who you think other people are. Eventually you come to see that everything outside you is a reflection of your own thinking. You are the storyteller, the projector of all stories, and the world is the projected image of your thoughts.

You would be amazed at who people are once you know yourself.

It's difficult to seek other people's love. It's deadly. In seeking it you lose what is genuine. This is the prison we create for ourselves as we seek what we already have.

I've heard people say that they cling to their painful thoughts because they're afraid that without them they wouldn't be activists for peace. "If I feel peaceful," they say, "why would I bother taking action at all?"

It's not the darkness that people fear; it's what they imagine into the darkness.

People don't need sudden revelations. They get what they need when they need it, thought by thought by thought. It's a constant thing when the mind starts to wake up to itself.

Inviting people to inquiry is much more powerful to me than describing my experience. When people hear me tell the story, they often say, "Oh my goodness, I get it. I get it!" But it's not enough.

We don't attach to people or to things; we attach to uninvestigated concepts that we believe to tbe true in the moment.

No one has ever been able to control his thinking, although people may tell the story of how they have. I don't let go of my thoughts-I meet them with understanding. Then they let go of me.

I love not rushing the process. Mind doesn't shift until it does, and when it does shift, it's right on time, not one second too late or too soon. People are like seeds waiting to sprout. We can't be pushed ahead of our own understanding.

If you are an enemy to your own mind, other people have to become enemies too, sooner or later. Until you understand, until you can love the thoughts that appear in your mind, then you can love the rest of us. You work with the projector -the mind - not the projected world. I can't really love you until I question the mind that thinks it sees you outside itself . . .

The best way of leading people is to let them find their own way.

Peace doesn't require two people; it requires only one. It has to be you. The problem begins and ends there.

My experience is that the teachers we need most are the people we're living with right now.

One morning, in February 1986, out of nowhere, I experienced a realization. In an instant, I discovered that when I believed my stressful thoughts, I suffered, but when I questioned them, I didn't suffer.

People try so hard to let go of their negative behaviors and thoughts, and it doesn't work, or it works only for a short time. I didn't let go of my negative thoughts; I questioned them, and then they let go of me, and so did my addictions and depression.

When we believe in our thoughts, when we tell ourselves a story, we suffer. 'My husband doesn't respect me.' 'I should be thinner.' Those are stories. When there's no story, there's no suffering.

I do whatever I can to serve peace. My job is the end of suffering.

I believe in the power of every human being to end suffering.

Suffering over things that have happened to us is nothing more than an argument with the past.

Your suffering is never caused by the person you're blaming.

I am the perpretor of my suffering - but only all of it.

The ability to understand the cause of your own suffering gives you the ability to understand ours.

The way to truly help someone is for me to not get immersed in their suffering.

If you argue against reality you will suffer.

The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want.

Any story that you tell about yourself causes suffering. There is no authentic story.

Every mind deserves to be free. When the mind is free, that's the end of suffering.

When you realize that suffering and discomfort are the call to inquiry, you may actually begin to look forward to uncomfortable feelings. You may even experience them as friends coming to show you what you have not yet investigated thoroughly enough.

We suffer only until we realize that we can't know anything.

A mind that doesn't question its judgements, makes the world very small and dangerous.

The perfect world is created when the mind is free to see it.

There is no peace in the world until you find peace within yourself in this moment.

I stopped waiting for the world to give me what I wanted; I started giving it to myself.

It's a wonderful world when you have what you want at all times.

When your mind opens, the whole world falls into place.

Until you can see everything in the world as your friend, your work is not done.

The world is what you believe it to be, and it changes as you change.