Gratitude is confidence in life itself. In it, we feel how the same force that pushes grass through cracks in the sidewalk invigorates our own life.

Even time is a concept. In reality we are always in the eternal present. The past is just a memory, the future just an image or thought. All our stories about past and future are only ideas, arising in the moment. Our modern culture is so tyrannized by goals, plans, and improvement schemes that we constantly live for the future. But as Aldous Huxley reminded us in his writings, "An idolatrous religion is one in which time is substituted for eternity...the idea of endless progress is the devil's work, even today demanding human sacrifice on an enormous scale.

In Buddhist practice, the outward and inward aspects of taking the one seat meet on our meditation cushion.

Since death will take us anyway, why live our life in fear? Why not die in our old ways and be free to live?

If grief or anger arises, Let there be grief or anger. This is the Buddha in all forms,Sun Buddha, Moon Buddha, Happy Buddha, Sad Buddha. It is the universe offering all things to awaken and open our heart.

Whenever we forgive, in small ways at home, or in great ways between nations, we free ourselves from the past.

We must look at our life without sentimentality, exaggeration or idealism. Does what we are choosing reflect what we most deeply value?