Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing?

We are all capable of becoming fundamentalists because we get addicted to other people's wrongness.

In order to have compassion for others, we have to have compassion for ourselves.

When we feel left out, inadequate, or lonely, can we take a warrior’s perspective and contact bodhichitta?

If we run a hundred miles an hour to the other end of the continent in order to get away from the obstacle, we find the very same problem waiting for us when we arrive. It just keeps returning with new names, forms, manifestations until we learn whatever it has to teach us about where we are separating ourselves from reality, how we are pulling back instead of opening up, closing down instead of allowing ourselves to experience fully whatever we encounter, without hesitating or retreating into ourselves.

We can put our whole heart into whatever we do; but if we freeze our attitude into for or against, we're setting ourselves up for stress. Instead, we could just go forward with curiosity, wondering where this experiment will lead. This kind of open-ended inquisitiveness captures the spirit of enthusiasm, or heroic perseverance.

Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us.