Our nature is the nature of no birth and no death. It is impossible for a cloud to pass from being into nonbeing. And that is true with a beloved person. They have not died. They have continued in many new forms and you can look deeply and recognize them in you and around you.

Be part of the miraculous moment.

In the moment when we are able to smile, to look at ourselves with compassion, our world begins to change.

Contemplating the bowl, it is possible to see the interdependent elements which give rise to the bowl.

It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not.

Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive.

Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.