When we are using this term 'basic goodness,' we are talking about our inherent completeness.

Being fooled into trying to make things work out for 'me' is called samsara.

The notion of auspiciousness is something positive, something with forward momentum, coming out of our actions.

If the mind is flexible, the world is flexible.

When I was going into one of my first meditation retreats, I asked my father, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, for some advice. He said, "How you act when you're alone affects the rest of your life." Even in solitude, the ruler engages in virtue.

When I ask people to contemplate selflessness, the sometimes react as if I've asked them to put their house on the market or give away all their money. If there was a self that existed in the way we think, discovering selflessness would be like putting our house on the market. But in the Buddhist tradition, the discovery of selflessness is called "completely joyful." It's not called "the raw end of the deal," or "I'd rather go back to bed," or "This is scary and depressing."

This is bravery: using the challenge of daily life to sharpen our mind and open our heart.