This dying forces you to look into yourself. And in this, compassion is the only way. Love is the only way.

Western laziness consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so that there is no time at all to confront the real issues.

If the mind is not contrived, it is spontaneously blissful, just as water, when not agitated, is by nature transparent and clear.

At the moment of death, there are two things that count: whatever we have done in our lives, and what state of mind we are in at that very moment. Even if we have accumulated a lot of negative karma, if we are able to make a real change of heart at the moment of death, it can decisively influence our future, and transform our karma, for the moment of death is an exceptionally powerful opportunity to purify karma.

Tomorrow or the next life - which comes first, we never know.

Once an old woman came to Buddha and asked him how to meditate. He told her to remain aware of every movement of her hands as she drew the water from the well, knowing that if she did, she would soon find herself in that state of alert and spacious calm that is meditation.

So often we want happiness, but the very way we pursue it is so clumsy and unskillful that it brings only more sorrow. Usually we assume we must grasp in order to have that something that will ensure our happiness. [...] Learning to live is learning to let go.