All the terrible things we do to ourselves and others from alcoholism to character assignation to abuse to murder come from one cause: the inability to stay present with an uncomfortable feeling in the body and seek short-term relief.

All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do.

Learning how to be kind to ourselves, learning how to respect ourselves, is important. The reason it's important is that, fundamentally, when we look into our own hearts and begin to discover what is confused and what is brilliant, what is bitter and what is sweet, it isn't just ourselves that we're discovering. We're discovering the universe.

Wholeheartedly do what it takes to awaken your clear-seeing intelligence, but one day at a time, one moment at a time. If we live that way, we will benefit this earth.

When we feel left out, inadequate, or lonely, can we take a warrior’s perspective and contact bodhichitta?

At some point, we realize that what we do for ourselves benefits others, and what we do for others benefits us.

This moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into what is unknown, uncharted and shaky - that's called liberation.