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

Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us.

This genuine heart of sadness can teach us great compassion. It can humble us when we're arrogant and soften us when we are unkind.

If you’re aggressive in your dealings, that’s how you’ll be regarded in the world. You might smile and give generously, but if you frequently explode in anger, people never feel comfortable in your presence and you’ll never have peace of mind.

When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless.

The essence of practice is always the same: instead of falling prey to a chain reaction of revenge or self-hatred, we gradually learn to catch the emotional reaction and drop the story lines.

The more we witness our emotional reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain.