The best defense against being hurt is to feel good about yourself and the way a person responds to you says more about them, than about you.

It is a mistake to expect all of our needs to be met by one person or in one relationship. Honor and be grateful for that which you receive. Don't become bitter and spend all your time focusing on that which the person is not able to provide.

When we sit, we open our own treasure house. Rather than do this, however, most of us first seek to find the treasures another person can provide. We calculate their value to us. When we approach relationships in this manner, we are coming as beggars, seeing the other as a source of supply. When we can enter a relationship with our treasure house already open, there is no end to the wonders we can find, both within and between ourselves and another.

This is how we know we are in a loving relationship. We are blooming, and the one we love is blooming as well.

What we pay attention to expands. What we pay attention to we become.

From the Zen view all beings are in the grip of the three poisons, greed, anger and delusion (ignorance).

In a relationship if you are giving and getting nothing back in return, stop giving so much, and spend time being. Give to yourself, be who you are.