Perhaps wisdom is simply a matter of waiting, and healing a question of time. And anything good you’ve ever been given is yours forever.
When we know ourselves to be connected to all others, acting compassionately is simply the natural thing to do.
What we do to survive is often different from what we may need to do in order to live.
My sense is that you can never teach anybody anything, or change anybody in ways that they don’t already have in mind.
In our instinctive attachments, our fear of change, and our wish for certainty and permanence, we may undercut the impermanence which is our greatest strength, our most fundamental identity. Without impermanence, there is no process. The nature of life is change. All hope is based on process.
Those who bless and serve life find a place of belonging and strength, a refuge.
Life is known only by those who have found a way to be comfortable with change and the unknown. Given the nature of life, there may be no security, but only adventure.
Our wounds are our sources of growth.
If you carry someone else’s fears and live by someone else’s values, you may find that you have lived their lives.
Sooner or later we will come to the edge of all that we can control and find life, waiting there for us.
From a good teacher you may learn the secret of listening. You will never learn the secret of life. You will have to listen for yourself.
When we are seen by the heart we are seen for who we are. We are valued in our uniqueness by those who are able to see us in this way and we become able to know and value ourselves.
Of course love is never earned. It is a grace we give one another. Anything we need to earn is only approval.
The wisdom in the story of the most educated and powerful person is often not greater than the wisdom in the story of a child, and the life of a child can teach us as much as the life of a sage.
An unanswered question is a fine traveling companion. It sharpens your eye for the road.
A shaman is someone who has a wound that will not heal. He sits by the side of the road with his open wound exposed.
Big messages come in small packages. All it may take to restore someone’s trust in life may be returning a lost earring or a dropped glove.
Illiness could be considered a Western form of meditation.
The way towards freedom from a situation often lies in acceptance of the situation.
Is it possible to live so defensively that you never get to live at all?