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.

The painful thing is that when we buy into disapproval,we are practicing disapproval. When we buy into harshness,we are practicing harshness.

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.

Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum and don't interrupt our patterns slightly. When we feel betrayed or disappointed, does it occur to us to practice?

At some point, we realize that what we do for ourselves benefits others, and what we do for others benefits us.

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

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.