True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings.

We can put our whole heart into whatever we do; but if we freeze our attitude into for or against, we're setting ourselves up for stress. Instead, we could just go forward with curiosity, wondering where this experiment will lead. This kind of open-ended inquisitiveness captures the spirit of enthusiasm, or heroic perseverance.

Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us.

As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don't deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity.

Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life; it might be the only strawberry we'll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life.

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

This moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into what is unknown, uncharted and shaky - that's called liberation.