Richard Rohr Quotes

Detachment doesn't mean I'm trying less hard. It just means that fears and emotions that used to torment and paralyze me no longer have the same power over me. Getting to this point hasn't always been easy; it took me years to really learn to silence my mind. But as you move through your career and your life, you will have to learn that if you're not what you do, then what you do has no business keeping you entertained at night.

I have no control over what people think, and if I were to spend energy on that, I would be a lifeless, deadened human being.

Fear is natural. Be with it.

I have learned to take the part of me that is very fearful and work on that. There is space for that in my life. I have learned to give myself a bit more freedom between 'action' and 'cut.' I come by all that fear honestly, like most humans have. I can't bring it with me to work, so in that way, the work feels quite liberating.

If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, quieter, warmer.

The moment I started watching my thoughts, I realized how futile fear is.

I remind myself that, though there was a time anxiety might have stopped me, today is not that day. And so, by checking in with myself, minute by minute, I push myself through.

It may take a little self-discipline - be simple, be kind, stay rested. Attend to your own inner-health and happiness.

Don't take anything personally. Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you. Their point of view and opinion come from all the programming they received growing up. When you take things personally, you feel offended and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflict. You make something big out of something so little because you have the need to be right and make everybody else wrong.

The emotional wisdom of the heart is simple. When we accept our human feelings, a remarkable transformation occurs. Tenderness and wisdom arise naturally and spontaneously. Where we once sought strength over others, now our strength becomes our own; where we once sought to defend ourselves, we laugh.

The next time you lose heart and you can’t bear to experience what you’re feeling, you might recall this instruction: change the way you see it and lean in. Instead of blaming our discomfort on outer circumstances or on our own weakness, we can choose to stay present and awake to our experience, not rejecting it, not grasping it, not buying the stories that we relentlessly tell ourselves. This is priceless advice that addresses the true cause of suffering—yours, mine, and that of all living beings.

Those who forgive themselves and are able to accept their real nature, they are the strong ones.

Practice can be stated very simply. It is moving from a life of hurting myself and others to a life of not hurting myself and others. That seems so simple-except when we substitute for real practice some idea that we should be different or better than we are, or that our lives should be different from the way they are. When we substitute our ideas about what should be (such notions as "I should not be angry or confused or unwilling") for our life as it truly is, then we're off base and our practice is barren.

When we really see other people as they are without taking it personally, we can never be hurt by what they say or do.

You are a success when you have made friends with your past, are focused on the present, and are optimistic about your future

Live with your lips pressed against your fears, kissing your fears, neither pulling back nor aggressively violating them.

When you understand yourself, that very day you have understood the whole of humanity. Then nobody can make you miserable.

You have to really understand that although certain memories or stories make you sad, you are not sad. Pull yourself out from that emotion and remember that.

Especially when you have a lot going on, you must find a way to unplug and focus on yourself.

It's OK to feel pain and experience it. I'm not trying to fix myself. My suffering has given me so much.

Sometimes you gotta get stupid with yourself, and you gotta enjoy your own company some time.

I try to be positive and calm all the time.

It took me a while to learn the true meaning of patience and surrender, but I have finally accepted that healing doesn't happen on our schedule. It doesn't have a clock or a calendar.

You've got to tune out the other people and tune in to what's going on inside. Love yourself. Nourish your body.