Most spiritual experiences begin with suffering. They begin with groundlessness. They begin when the rug has been pulled out from under us.

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

Nothing in its essence is one way or the other.

The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong. What a relief. Finally somebody told the truth. Suffering is part of life, and we don’t have to feel it’s happening because we personally made the wrong move. In reality, however, when we feel suffering, we think that something is wrong. As long as we’re addicted to hope, we feel that we can tone our experience down or liven it up or change it somehow, and we continue to suffer a lot.

Relaxing with something as familiar as loneliness is good discipline for realizing the profundity of the unresolved moments of our lives. We are cheating ourselves when we run away from the ambiguity of loneliness.....Rather than persecuting yourself or feeling that something terribly wrong is happening, right there in the moment of sadness and longing, could you relax and touch the limitless space of the human heart?

Suffering begins to dissolve when we can question the belief or the hope that there's anywhere to hide.

Hell is just resistance to life.