There are several different kinds of painful feelings that we might experience, and learning to distinguish and relate to these feelings of discomfort or pain is an important part of meditation practice, because it is one of the very first things that we open to as our practice develops.

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

Once we see that everything is impermanent and ungraspable and that we create a huge amount of suffering if we are attached to things staying the same, we realize that relaxing and letting go is a wiser way to live. Letting go does not mean not caring about things. It means caring about them in a flexible and wise way.

The person who betrayed you is sunning themselves on a beach in Hawaii and you're knotted up in hatred. Who is suffering?

An honorable spiritual practice recognizes the losses we have suffered, tells our story, and sheds our tears to free us from the past.

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

Great pain, when it is honored from the heart, opens into great understanding.