Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us.

The most heartbreaking thing of all is how we cheat ourselves of the present moment.

None of us is ever OK, but we all get through everything just fine.

Impermanence is a principle of harmony. When we don't struggle against it, we are in harmony with reality.

People get into a heavy-duty sin and guilt trip, feeling that if things are going wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being punished. That's not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart. To the degree that you didn't understand in the past how to stop protecting your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you're given this gift of teachings in the form of your life, to give you everything you need to open further.

When we sit down to meditate, we connect with something unconditional - a state of mind, a basic environment that does not grasp or reject anything. Meditation is probably the only activity that doesn't add anything to the picture. Everything is allowed to come and go without further embellishment. Meditation is a totally nonviolent, non aggressive occupation. Not filling the space, allowing for the possibility of connecting with unconditional openness - this provides the basis for real change.

If you work with your mind, instead of trying to change everything on the outside, that's how your temper will cool down.