Chögyam Trungpa

“Gentleness is the real strength of the warrior.”

“Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart.”

“When we are afraid of ourselves and afraid of the seeming threat the world presents, we become extremely selfish.”

“We do not have to be ashamed of what we are. As sentient beings we have wonderful backgrounds. These backgrounds may not be particularly enlightened or peaceful or intelligent. Nevertheless, we have soil. We have background and we are worthy.”

“Meditation is simply the creation of a space in which we are able to expose and undo our neurotic games, our self-deceptions, our hidden fears and hopes.”

“The problem is that the ego can convert anything to its own use, even spirituality.”

“You are the sky. The clouds are what happens, what comes and goes.”

“There is no need to struggle to be free; the absence of struggle is in itself freedom.”

“Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty.”

“The bad news is you're falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is, there's no ground.”

“Enlightenment is the ego's ultimate disappointment.”

“A great deal of the chaos in the world occurs because people don't appreciate themselves.”

“If you are telling the truth, you can be profoundly relaxed.”

“True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason.”

“The essence of warriorship, or the essence of human bravery, is refusing to give up on anyone or anything.”

“Chaos should be regarded as extremely good news.”

“To be a spiritual warrior, one must have a broken heart; without a broken heart and the sense of tenderness and vulnerability, your warriorship is untrustworthy.”

“Nowness is the sense that we are attuned to what is happening.”

“The idea of spiritual warriors is that we discover the folly of trying to run away from the problems of life.”