We practice to liberate ourselves from a burden.

In order to have compassion for others, we have to have compassion for ourselves.

Discomfort of any kind becomes the basis for practice. We breathe in knowing our pain is shared.

All the terrible things we do to ourselves and others from alcoholism to character assignation to abuse to murder come from one cause: the inability to stay present with an uncomfortable feeling in the body and seek short-term relief.

Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die.

The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.

By the way that we think and by the way that we believe in things, in that way our world is created.