You awaken your True spirit by way of the broken heart: ragged, vulnerable, fierce and finally compassionate. Chris trod this rough way and shows honestly how it can be done.

Our ideas of self are created by identification. The less we cling to ideas of self, the freer and happier we will be.

Forgiveness does not mean that we have to continue to relate to those who have done us harm. In some cases the best practice may be to end our connection, to never speak to or be with a harmful person again. Sometimes in the process of forgiveness a person who hurts or betrayed us may wish to make amends, but even this does not require us to put ourselves in the way of further harm.

In deep self acceptance, grows a compassionate understanding.

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.

You need a community. They remind you when you forget, and you remind them when they forget.

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