We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.

In truth, there is enormous space in which to live our everyday lives.

As we practice, we begin to know the difference between our fantasy and reality.

Don't worry about achieving. Don't worry about perfection. Just be there each moment as best you can. When you realize you've wandered off again, simply very lightly acknowledge that. This light touch is the golden key to reuniting with our openness.

So even if the hot loneliness is there, and for 1.6 seconds we sit with that restlessness when yesterday we couldn't sit for even one, that's the journey of the warrior. (68)

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.

As Buddhism moved from one culture to another, it always adapted.