You can think of spiritual practice as a kind of spiritual re-parenting ... You're offering yourself the two qualities that make up good parenting: understanding - seeing yourself for who you truly are - and relating to what you see with unconditional love.

Awakening self-compassion is often the greatest challenge people face on the spiritual path.

Observing desire without acting on it enlarges our freedom to choose how we live.

If our hearts are ready for anything, we are touched by the beauty and poetry and mystery that fill our world.

Where desire ends up causing suffering is when it fixates.

To me, bringing mindfulness-bas ed practices to students, teachers and parents is some of the most important work we can be doing. If we can help the next generation become more self-aware, empathetic and emotionally resilient, they will bring their wisdom to healing the earth and creating a more peaceful world.

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