When we change our daily lives - the way we think, speak and act - we change the world.

The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.

Go back and take care of yourself. Your body needs you, your feelings need you, your perceptions need you. Your suffering needs you to acknowledge it. Go home and be there for all these things.

We talk about social service, service to the people, service to humanity, service to others who are far away, helping to bring peace to the world - but often we forget that it is the very people around us that we must live for first of all. If you cannot serve your wife or husband or child or parent - how are you going to serve society? If you cannot make your own child happy, how do you expect to be able to make anyone else happy? If all our friends in the peace movement or of service communities of any kind do not love and help each other, whom can we love and help?

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

The therapist does not treat patients by simply giving them another set of beliefs. He or she tries to help them see which kinds of ideas and beliefs have led to their suffering. Many patients want to get rid of their painful feelings, but they do not want to get rid of their beliefs, the viewpoints that are the very roots of their feelings.

To be a monk is to have time to practice for your transformation and healing. And after that to help with the transformation and healing of other people.