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.

We can step out of our small sense of self and awaken to this reality. One of the reasons people get confused about freedom, enlightenment, and liberation is because this awakened consciousness has different facets or different dimensions, a bit like a crystal. If you hold this luminous crystal up to the light and turn it, it will take a beam of white light and refract it into the many colors of the spectrum.

It's much better to become a Buddha than a Buddhist.

Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things.

Be mindful of intention. Intention is the seed that creates our future.

May you know the beauty of your own true nature.

As surely as there is a voyage away, there is a journey home.