Without loving-kindness for ourselves, it is difficult, if not impossible, to genuinely feel it for others.

Clarity and decisiveness come from the willingness to slow down, to listen to and look at what’s happening.

Everything in our lives has the potential to wake us up or put us to sleep. Allowing it to awaken us is up to us.

Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That’s the ground, that’s what we study, that’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.

I equate ego with trying to figure everything out instead of going with the flow. That closes your heart and your mind to the person or situation that's right in front of you, and you miss so much.

Don’t get caught up in hopes of what you’ll achieve and how good your situation will be some day in the future. What you do right now is what matters.

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?