We can begin to open our hearts to others when we have no hope of getting anything back. We just do it for its own sake.
Never give up on yourself. Then you will never give up on others.
Compassionate action involves working with ourselves as much as working with others.
It’s helpful to remind yourself that meditation is about opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing.
It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share.
When resistance is gone, the demons are gone.
Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already.
As we learn to have compassion for ourselves, the circle of compassion for others – what and whom we can work with, and how – becomes wider.
Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum and don’t interrupt our patterns slightly. When we feel betrayed or disappointed, does it occur to us to practice?
Unconditional good heart toward others is not even a possibility unless we attend to our own demons.
One of the main discoveries of meditation is seeing how we continually run away from the present moment, how we avoid being here just as we are. That’s not considered to be a problem. The point is to see it.
Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.
I have all the support I need to simply relax and be with the transitional, in-process quality of my life. I have all I need to engage in the process of awakening.
Honesty without kindness, humor, and goodheartedness can be just mean. From the very beginning to the very end, pointing to our own hearts to discover what is true isn’t just a matter of honesty but also of compassion and respect for what we see.
Every moment is unique, unknown, completely fresh.
When we feel left out, inadequate, or lonely, can we take a warrior’s perspective and contact bodhichitta?
The only way to ease our pain is to experience it fully. Learn to stay with uneasiness, learn to stay with the tightening, so that the habitual chain reaction doesn’t continue to rule your life.
Generosity is an activity that loosens us up. By offering whatever we can – a dollar, a flower, a word of encouragement – we are training in letting go.
We can drop the fundamental hope that there is a better “me” who one day will emerge. We can’t just jump over ourselves as if we were not there.
As our kindness for ourselves grows, so does our kindness for other people.