We can bring a heart of understanding and compassion to a world that needs it so much.

To open deeply, as genuine spiritual life requires, we need tremendous courage and strength, a kind of warrior spirit.

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another - and ourselves.

Everybody needs to take some time, in some way, to quiet themselves and really listen to their heart.

To bow to the fact of our life's sorrows and betrayals is to accept them; and from this deep gesture we discover that all life is workable. As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine.

One of the essential tasks for living a wise life is letting go. Letting go is the path to freedom. It is only by letting go of the hopes, the fears, the pain, the past, the stories that have a hold on us that we can quiet our mind and open our heart.

You are the mystery incarnating itself, and it's beautiful when you remember. It's also painful and awesome and it contains unbearable beauty and unfathomable pain - the ocean of tears and galaxy of bliss. I don't say that lightly, but it's what we have.