The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe that things last—that they don’t disintegrate, that they can be counted on to satisfy our hunger for security.

Being satisfied with what we already have is a magical golden key to being alive in a full, unrestricted, and inspired way.

There's nothing more important on our spiritual path than developing gentleness to oneself.

Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live.

The teacher will never give up on the student no matter how mixed up he or she might be

Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.

A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us.