With mindfulness, we are learning to observe in a new way, with balance and a powerful disidentification.

Great spiritual traditions are used as a means to ripen us, to bring us face to face with our life, and to help us to see in a new way by developing a stillness of mind and a strength of heart.

We need to learn how to honor and use a practice for as long as it serves us—which in most cases is a very long time—but to look at it as just that, a vehicle, a raft to help us cross through the waters of doubt, confusion, desire, and fear.

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

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

We need courage and strength, a kind of warrior spirit. But the place for this warrior strength is in the heart. We need energy, commitment, and courage not to run from our life nor to cover it over with any philosophy-mate rial or spiritual. We need a warrior’s heart that lets us face our lives directly, our pains and limitations, our joys and possibilities.

Embodied courage chooses not to wait until illness or notice of death demands attention.