Even if you don't feel appreciation, just look. Feel what you feel; take an interest and be curious.

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

Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty. We can’t simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment. We feel that someone else knows what is going on, but that there is something missing in us, and therefore something is lacking in our world.

Lower your standards and relax as it is.

If we Pause and breathe in and out, then we can have the experience of timeless presence, of the inexpressible wisdom and goodness of our own minds. We can look at the world with fresh eyes and hear things with fresh ears.

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.

It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play.