Holding on to anything blocks wisdom.

True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings.

We can drop the fundamental hope that there is a better "me" who one day will emerge. We can't just jump over ourselves as if we were not there.

You build inner strength through embracing the totality of your experience, both the delightful parts and the difficult parts.

The more we witness our emotional reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain.

Buddhist words such as compassion and emptiness don't mean much until we start cultivating our innate ability simply to be there with pain with an open heart and the willingness not to instantly try to get ground under our feet. For instance, if what we're feeling is rage, we usually assume that there are only two ways to relate to it. One is to blame others. Lay it all on somebody else; drive all blames into everyone else. The other alternative is to feel guilty about our rage and blame ourselves.

The essence of our whole path is in that place of discomfort, and what do we do with it?