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

As our kindness for ourselves grows, so does our kindness for other people.

Life's work is to wake up, to let the things that enter your life wake you up rather than put you to sleep.

Let difficulty transform you. And it will. In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away.

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man's-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.

WE ALREADY HAVE everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips that we lay on ourselves—the heavy-duty fearing that we’re bad and hoping that we’re good, the identities that we so dearly cling to, the rage, the jealousy and the addictions of all kinds—never touch our basic wealth. They are like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.

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