Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person.

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

It's helpful to remind yourself that meditation is about opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing.

What's encouraging about meditation is that, even if we shut down, we can no longer shut down in ignorance. We see very clearly that we're closing off. That in itself begins to illuminate the darkness of ignorance.

Use your life to wake you up.

The approach is that the best way to use unwanted circumstances on the path of enlightenment is not to resist but to lean into them.

If you see a homeless person on the street, and they need food, housing, medical attention - if you can give that, do it. But at the same time, work with tonglen, because that is how you start dissolving the barrier between you and them.