Enlightenment is a direct experience with reality.

The third noble truth says that the cessation of suffering is letting go of holding on to ourselves.

One very powerful and effective way to work with this tendency to push away pain and hold on to pleasure is the practice of tonglen.  In tonglen practice, when we see or feel suffering, we  breathe in with the notion of completely feeling it, accepting it, and owning it.

If you work with your mind, instead of trying to change everything on the outside, that's how your temper will cool down.

In order to have compassion for others, we have to have compassion for ourselves.

Compassion isn't some kind of self-improvement project or ideal that we're trying to live up to. Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves, all those imperfections that we don't even want to look at.

When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into it’s dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment