The first level of practice is illuminated by the qualities of courage and renunciation.

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

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.

The quieting of our mind is a political act.

When we come into the present, we begin to feel the life around us again, but we also encounter whatever we have been avoiding. We must have the courage to face whatever is present - our pain, our desires, our grief, our loss, our secret hopes our love - everything that moves us most deeply.

In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived How well we have loved How well we have learned to let go

When we take the one seat on our meditation cushion we become our own monastery. We create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things: sorrows, loneliness, shame, desire, regret, frustration, happiness.