We can find true refuge within our own hearts and minds-right here, right now, in the midst of our moment-to-momen t lives.
Sometimes the easiest way to appreciate ourselves is by looking through the eyes of someone who loves us.
Mindfulness is a pause – the space between stimulus and response: that’s where choice lies.
Compassion can be described as letting ourselves be touched by the vulnerability and suffering that is within ourselves and all beings. The full flowering of compassion also includes action: Not only do we attune to the presence of suffering, we respond to it.
Feeling compassion for ourselves in no way releases us from responsibility for our actions. Rather, it releases us from the self-hatred that prevents us from responding to our life with clarity and balance.
When we relax about imperfection, we no longer lose our life moments in the pursuit of being different and in the fear of what is wrong.
When someone says to us, as Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, “Darling, I care about your suffering,” a deep healing begins.
There are some things we can’t choose, but in being present we can choose how we want to relate to them.
When we open to love, we become love.
If our hearts are ready for anything, we are touched by the beauty and poetry and mystery that fill our world.
Longing, felt fully, carries us to belonging.
The intimacy that arises in listening and speaking truth is only possible if we can open to the vulnerability of our own hearts. Breathing in, contacting the life that is right here, is our first step. Once we have held ourselves with kindness, we can touch others in a vital and healing way.
Paying attention is the most basic and profound expression of love.
Our attitude in the face of life’s challenges determines our suffering or our freedom.
Fear of being a flawed person lay at the root of my trance, and I had sacrificed many moments over the years in trying to prove my worth. Like the tiger Mohini, I inhabited a self-made prison that stopped me from living fully.
Imperfection is not our personal problem – it is a natural part of existing.
Observing desire without acting on it enlarges our freedom to choose how we live.
Suffering is our call to attention, our call to investigate the truth of our beliefs.
The most powerful healing arises from the simple intention to love the life within you, unconditionally, with as much tenderness and presence as possible.
The muscles used to make a smile actually send a biochemical message to our nervous system that it is safe to relax the flight of freeze response.