The next time you lose heart and you can’t bear to experience what you’re feeling, you might recall this instruction: change the way you see it and lean in. Instead of blaming our discomfort on outer circumstances or on our own weakness, we can choose to stay present and awake to our experience, not rejecting it, not grasping it, not buying the stories that we relentlessly tell ourselves. This is priceless advice that addresses the true cause of suffering—yours, mine, and that of all living beings.

All ego really is, is our opinions, which we take to be solid, real, and the absolute truth about how things are.

We sow the seeds of our future hells or happiness by the way we open or close our minds right now.

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.

The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.

We can begin to open our hearts to others when we have no hope of getting anything back. We just do it for its own sake.

Buddhism itself is all about empowering yourself, not about getting what you want.