Our kids go to school and they come out feeling not intelligent, not desirable, not attractive or appealing to others.

When we relax about imperfection, we no longer lose our life moments in the pursuit of being different and in the fear of what is wrong.

That non-attachment gives us the freedom to be exactly who we are.

Whatever you encounter, may that be part of the path.

When we see the secret beauty of anyone, including ourselves, we see past our judgment and fear into the core of who we truly are - not an entrapped self but the radiance of goodness.

If our hearts are ready for anything, we can open to our inevitable losses, and to the depths of our sorrow. We can grieve our lost loves, our lost youth, our lost health, our lost capacities. This is part of our humanness, part of the expression of our love for life.

I registered the dukkha of self-aversion with such clarity that I knew there was no freedom unless I could love this life without holding back. This didn't mean I was going to ignore my flaws and stop seeking to improve what I could. But in the deepest way, I was not going to fixate on the conclusion that something was wrong with me.