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

Sometimes people's spiritual ideas become fixed and they use them against those who don't share their beliefs - in effect, becoming fundamentalist. It's very dangerous - the finger of righteous indignation pointing at someone who is identified as bad or wrong.

By becoming intimate with how we close down and how we open up, we awaken our unlimited potential.

To stay with that shakiness-to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge-that is the path of true awakening. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic-this is the spiritual path.

What if rather than being disheartened by the ambiguity, the uncertainty of life, we accepted it and relaxed into it?

Underneath our ordinary lives, underneath all the talking we do, all the moving we do, all the thoughts in our minds, there's a fundamental groundlessness. It's there bubbling along all the time. We experience it as restlessness and edginess. We experience it as fear. It motivates passion, aggression, ignorance, jealousy, and pride, but we never get down to the essence of it.

If there's any possibility for enlightenment, it's right now, not at some future time. Now is the time.