Awareness is a mirror reflecting the four elements. Beauty is a heart that generates love and a mind that is open.

Maybe we have enough technology to save the planet but it is not enough because the people are not ready.

Wherever we are we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other and the wonder of our breathing.

I would not look upon anger as something foreign to me that I have to fight... I have to deal with my anger with care, with love, with tenderness, with nonviolence.

To be free, first of all, is to be free from wrong views that are the foundation of all kinds of suffering and fear and violence.

The nectar of compassion is so wonderful. If you are committed to keeping it alive, then you are protected. What the other person says will not touch off the anger and irritation in you, because compassion is the real antidote to anger. Nothing can heal anger except compassion. That is why the practice of compassion is a very wonderful practice.

No one can practice the precepts perfectly, including the Buddha... Boiled vegetables contain dead bacteria. We cannot practice the First Precept or any of the precepts perfectly. But because of the real danger in our society-alcoholism has destroyed so many families and has brought about much unhappiness-we have to do something. We have to live in a way that will eradicate that kind of damage. That is why even if you can be very healthy with one glass of wine every week, I still urge you with all my strength to abandon that glass of wine.