A bulging portfolio of spiritual experiences matters little if it does not have the power to sustain us through the inevitable moments of grief, loss, and change. Knowledge and achievements matter little if we do not yet know how to touch the heart of another and be touched. Wisdom is alive only as long as it is lived, understanding is liberating only as long as it is applied.

The awakened heart and mind can be experienced as clarity itself, pure knowing.

Without being aware of it, you take many things as being your identity: your body, your race, your beliefs, your thoughts.

In opening we can see how many times we have mistaken small identities and fearful beliefs for our true nature and how limiting this is. We can touch with great compassion the pain from the contracted identities that we and others have created in the world.

In spiritual life there is no room for compromise. Awakening is not negotiable; we cannot bargain to hold on to things that please us while relinquishing things that do not matter to us. A lukewarm yearning for awakening is not enough to sustain us through the difficulties involved in letting go. It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us.

What would we have to hold in compassion to be at peace right now? What would we have to let go of to be at peace right now?

No one knows how this world came into being. It is a creation of consciousness itself. It's extraordinary, a mystery.