According to the Buddhist belief, you can go on and on indefinitely, so you see your life as just a brief moment in time.

Sometimes people's spiritual ideas become fixed and they use them against those who don't share their beliefs - in effect, becoming fundamentalist. It's very dangerous - the finger of righteous indignation pointing at someone who is identified as bad or wrong.

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

While we are sitting in meditation, we are simply exploring humanity and all of creation in the form of ourselves.

Resisting what is happening is a major cause of suffering.

Maybe the most important teaching is to lighten up and relax. It's such a huge help in working with our crazy mixed-up minds to remember that what we're doing is unlocking a softness that is in us and letting it spread. We're letting it blur the sharp corners of self-criticism and complaint.

When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.