Love and concern for all are not things some of us are born with and others are not. Rather, they are results of what we do with our minds: We can choose to transform our minds so that they embody love, or we can allow them to develop habits and false concepts of separation.

In a single moment we can understand we are not just facing a knee pain, or our discouragement and our wishing the sitting would end, but that right in the moment of seeing that knee pain, we're able to explore the teachings of the Buddha. What does it mean to have a painful experience? What does it mean to hate it, and to fear it?

Even in the midst of devastation, something within us always points the way to freedom.

We find greater lightness & ease in our lives as we increasingly care for ourselves & other beings.

By prizing heartfulness above faultlessness, we may reap more from our effort because we're more likely to be changed by it.

It is so powerful when we can leave behind our ordinary identities, no longer think of ourselves primarily as a conductor, or writer, or salesclerk, and go to a supportive environment to deeply immerse in meditation practice.

The embodiment of kindness is often made difficult by our long ingrained patterns of fear & jealousy.