Most of us have spent our lives caught up in plans, expectations, ambitions for the future; in regrets, guilt or shame about the past. To come into the present is to stop the war.

It is the place of feeling that binds us or frees us.

With mindfulness, we are learning to observe in a new way, with balance and a powerful disidentification.

Where we tended to be judgmental, we became more judgmental of ourselves in our spiritual practice.

To learn to concentrate we must choose a prayer or meditation and follow this path with commitment and steadiness, a willingness to work with our practice day after day, no matter what arises.

The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is to release the images and emotions, the grudges and fears, the clingings and disappointments of the past that bind our spirit.

In this there is no judgment and no blame, for we seek not to perfect the world but to perfect our love for what is on this earth.