The kingdom of God is available to you in the here and the now. But the question is whether you are available to the kingdom.

Looking deeply into the wrong perceptions, ideas, and notions that are at the base of our suffering is the most important practice in Buddhist meditation.

Guarding knowledge is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge. You have to be able to transcend your knowledge the way people climb a ladder. If you are on the fifth step of a ladder and think that you are very high, there is no hope for you to climb to the sixth.

But if we have the energy of compassion and loving kindness in us, the people around us will be influenced by our way of being and living.

When our beliefs are based on our own direct experience of reality and not on notions offered by others, no one can remove these beliefs from us.

When you feel anger arising, remember to return to your breathing and follow it. The other person may see that you are practicing, and she may even apologize.

When you love someone, the best you can offer is your presence.