“When you flip the switch in that attic, it doesn’t matter whether its been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades.”

As we practice meditation, we get used to stillness and eventually are able to make.

The starting place for radical re-imagining of love is mindfulness.

We can free ourselves from the old stories that have reduced us & allow real love for ourselves to blossom.

All beings want to be happy, yet so very few know how. It is out of ignorance that any of us cause suffering, for ourselves or for others.

Thinking we are only supposed to have loving & compassionate feelings can be a terrible obstacle to spiritual practice.

Mindfulness, also called wise attention, helps us see what we’re adding to our experiences, not only during meditation sessions but also elsewhere.

It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn’t depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn’t depend on how long you’ve held on to the old view.

Our practice rather than being about killing the ego is about simply discovering our true nature.

We can understand the inherent radiance & purity of our minds by understanding metta. Like the mind, metta is not distorted by what it encounters.

All forms of meditation strengthen & direct our attention through the cultivation of three key skills: concentration, mindfulness & compassion or loving & kindness.

In those moments when we realize how much we cannot control, we can learn to let go.

Effort is the unconstrained willingness to persevere through difficulty.

Even when we do our very best to treat those close to us with utmost respect and understanding, conflict happens. That’s life. That’s human nature.

If we turn away from our own pain, we may find ourselves projecting this aversion onto others, seeing them as somehow inadequate for being in a troubled situation.

over time, offering loving kindness to all beings everywhere, including ourselves, unites us to one another so that we know that we can not go forward forgetting those left behind.

We don’t need any sort of religious orientation to lead a life that is ethical, compassionate & kind.

What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

The moon stays bright when it doesn’t avoid the night.

Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — always darker, emptier and simpler.

The darkest moments of our lives are not to be buried and forgotten, rather they are a memory to be called upon for inspiration to remind us of the unrelenting human spirit and our capacity to overcome the intolerable.

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

Night is always darker before the dawn and life is the same, the hard times will pass, every thing will get better and sun will shine brighter then ever.

If in the darkness of ignorance, you don’t recognize a person’s true nature, look to see whom he has chosen for his leader.