I remember having a discussion with [Kaz] about his translation of the word shunyata as "boundlessness," instead of the more traditional "emptiness." I said: "Kaz, everyone is used to the word emptiness for shunyata. This might not sit well with people. He said: "Translator's prerogative!" Then he added, "One cannot assume we know what they meant...." I agreed.

Catastrophe is the essence of the spiritual path, a series of breakdowns allowing us to discover the threads that weave all of life into a whole cloth.

When we have disorderly lives, it makes it difficult for our minds to be orderly and for us to be at ease with disorder.

May I see my own limits with compassion, just as I view the limits of others.

Developing our capacity for compassion makes it possible for us to help others in a more skillful and effective way.

My work has been in the field of engaged Buddhism. That is my own practice, which began in 1965 that formed the base for the work I was doing in the civil rights and anti-war movement.

Compassion has enemies, and those enemies are things like pity, moral outrage, fear.