The way I regard those who hurt me today will affect how I experience the world in the future. In any encounter, we have a choice: we can strengthen our resentment or our understanding and empathy. We can widen the gap between ourselves and others or lessen it.

In a nutshell, when life is pleasant, think of others. When life is a burden, think of others.

Impermanence is a principle of harmony. When we don't struggle against it, we are in harmony with reality.

We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment.

In the most ordinary terms, egolessness is a flexible identity. It manifests as inquisitiveness , as adaptability, as humor, as playfulness. It is our capacity to relax with not knowing, not figuring everything out, with not being at all sure who we are, or who anyone else is, either.

We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.

When you open the door and invite in all sentient beings as your guests, you have to drop your agenda.