The biggest obstacle to taking a bigger perspective on life is that our emotions capture and blind us.

One of the deepest habitual patterns that we have is to feel that now is not enough.

What happens with you when you begin to feel uneasy, unsettled, queasy? Notice the panic, notice when you instantly grab for something. (51)

Tonglen practice begins to dissolve the illusion that each of us is alone with this personal suffering that no one else can understand.

Ego is like a room of your own, a room with a view with the temperature and the smells and the music that you like. You want it your own way. You'd just like to have a little peace, you'd like to have a little happiness, you know, just gimme a break.

To put it concisely, we suffer when we resist the noble and irrefutable truth of impermanence and death.

We could learn to stop when the sun goes down and when the sun comes up. We could learn to listen to the wind; we could learn to notice that it's raining or snowing or hailing or calm. We could reconnect with the weather that is ourselves, and we could realize that it's sad. The sadder it is, and the vaster it is, the more our heart opens. We can stop thinking that good practice is when it's smooth and calm, and bad practice is when it's rough and dark. If we can hold it all in our hearts, then we can make a proper cup of tea.