It isn't the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it's how we relate to the things that happen to us that causes us to suffer.

As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don't deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity.

The truth is that good and bad coexist; sour and sweet coexist. They aren't really opposed to each other.

If you follow your heart, you're going to find that it is often extremely inconvenient.

For arousing compassion, the nineteenth-century yogi Patrul Rinpoche suggested imagining beings in torment - an animal about to be slaughtered, a person awaiting execution. To make it more immediate, he recommended imagining ourselves in their place. Particularly painful is his image of a mother with no arms watching as a raging river sweeps her child away. To contact the suffering of another being fully and directly is as painful as being in the woman's shoes.

In meditation, you learn how to get out of your own way long enough for there to be room for your wisdom to manifest

Trying to run away is never the answer to being a fully human. Running away from the immediacy of our experience is like preferring death to life.