The unawakened mind tends to make war against the way things are. To follow a path with heart, we must understand the whole process of making war within ourselves and without, how it begins and how it ends. War’s roots are in ignorance. Without understanding we can easily become frightened by life’s fleeting changes, the inevitable losses, disappointments, the insecurity of our aging and death. Misunderstanding leads us to fight against life, running from pain or grasping at security and pleasures that by their nature can never be satisfying.

Love is based on our capacity to trust in a reality beyond fear, to trust a timeless truth bigger than all our difficulties.

Nobody knows why they were born or where they come from.

The aim of spiritual life is to awaken a joyful freedom, a benevolent and compassionate heart in spite of everything.

The best of modern therapy is much like a process of shared meditation, where therapist and client sit together, learning to pay close attention to those aspects and dimensions of the self that the client may be unable to touch on his or her own.

We need energy, commitment, and courage not to run from our life nor to cover it over with any philosophy—material or spiritual.

There is beauty to be found in the changing of the earth’s seasons, and an inner grace in honouring the cycles of life.