Longing, felt fully, carries us to belonging.

The renowned seventh-century Zen master Seng-tsan taught that true freedom is being "without anxiety about imperfection.

I think of depression as the mechanism that pushes down the pain of that loss. It tries to distance us from the loss but it lowers our whole energy level. I think that's a pervasive way we end up responding to loss or the anticipation of loss. Natural but not necessary.

I speak a lot about what I call "the trance of unworthiness" which is really epidemic in our culture, this sense of "I'm not enough," or "something's wrong with me." Most of us have some level of it because our culture has all these standards (handed down through our families) of what it means to be okay.

Our greatest longing is to be intimate.

By regarding ourselves with kindness, we begin to dissolve the identity of an isolated, deficient self. This creates the grounds for including others in an unconditionally loving heart.

There is so much division in this world. So what is really the path of healing? It can begin in this moment, by embracing the life that`s here.