Use whatever has come to awaken patience, understanding, and love.

The basic principle of spiritual life is that our problems become the very place to discover wisdom and love.

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.

It is the basic principle of spiritual life that we learn the deepest things in unknown territory. Often it is when we feel most confused inwardly and are in the midst of our greatest difficulties that something new will open. We awaken most easily to the mystery of life through our weakest side. The areas of our greatest strength, where we are the most competent and clearest, tend to keep us away from the mystery.

A second quality of mature sirituality is kindness. It is based on a fundamental notion of self-acceptance.

True love is not for the faint-hearted.

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