The happiness we seek cannot be found through grasping, trying to hold on to things. It cannot be found through getting serious and uptight about wanting things to go in the direction we think will bring happiness. We are always taking hold of the wrong end of the stick. The point is that the happiness we seek is already here and it will be found through relaxation and letting go rather than through struggle.

We have a choice. We can spend our whole life suffering because we can't relax with how things really are, or we can relax and embrace the open-endedness of the human situation, which is fresh, unfixated, unbiased.

So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.

A warrior accepts that we can never know what will happen to us next.

Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. Why? Because it is all we ever have.

The teacher will never give up on the student no matter how mixed up he or she might be

Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.