Compassion begins with the acknowledgment of the single inescapable truth that is the foundation for the possibility of love between human beings - an awareness of the tragic sense of life.

What happens if I try to build a life dedicated to avoiding all danger and all unnecessary risk?

I think there are families that are very kind and supportive of people's ability to change. People who come from such families may go through life without dipping into the dark night.

Mounting an expedition to actualize a Compassionate Commonwealth of all peoples...is the great spiritual challenge of our time.

Paranoia reduces anxiety and guilt by transferring to the other all the characteristics one does not want to recognize in oneself. It is maintained by selective perception and recall. We only see and acknowledge those negative aspects of the enemy that support the stereotype we have already created.

The spiritual mind is always metaphorical. Spiritual thinking is poetic thinking. It's always trying to put a very diaphanous experience into words, realizing all the while that words are inadequate.

If we had a better understanding of the ways we think about enemies, we might be able to think of more rational ways of settling conflict.