The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.

Tonglen dissolves your solid sense of "I'm the wise person, I'm going to help this poor, unfortunate loser."

It's not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share.

Lower your standards and relax as it is.

If we want there to be peace in the world, we have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid in our hearts, to find the soft spot and stay with it. We have to have that kind of courage and take that kind of responsibility. That’s the true practice of peace.

Someone needs to encourage us not to brush aside what we feel. Not to be ashamed of the love and grief that it arouses in us. Not to be afraid of pain. Someone needs to encourage us: that this soft spot in us could be awakened, and that to do this would change our lives.

What if rather than being disheartened by the ambiguity, the uncertainty of life, we accepted it and relaxed into it?