“May I be given the appropriate difficulties so that my heart can truly open with compassion. Imagine asking for that.”

Equanimity arises when we accept the way things are.

Every facet, every department of your mind, is to be programmed by you. And unless you assume your rightful responsibility, and begin to program your own mind, the world will program it for you.

The person who betrayed you is sunning themselves on a beach in Hawaii and you’re knotted up in hatred. Who is suffering?

The goal of practice is always to keep our beginner’s mind.

To live fully is to let go and die with each passing moment, and to be reborn in each new one.

The grief we carry is part of the grief of the world. Hold it gently. Let it be honored. You do not have to keep it in anymore. You can let go into the heart of compassion; you can weep.

We can always begin again.

Within each of us there is a silence as vast as the universe. We long for it. We can return to it.

We do not have to improve ourselves; we just have to let go of what blocks our heart.

Life is so hard, how can we be anything but kind?

To undertake a genuine spiritual path is not to avoid difficulties but to learn the art of making mistakes wakefully, to bring them to the transformative power of our heart.

Compassion for ourselves gives rise to the power to transform resentment into forgiveness, hatred into friendliness, and fear into respect for all beings.

When we let go of our battles and open our hearts to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice.

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

No matter how difficult the past, you can always begin again today.

A second quality of mature spirituality is kindness. It is based on a fundamental notion of self-acceptance.

I’m intelligent enough to survive happily and be compassionate. If I were too smart, I would realize all the ills of the world.

When you see the world that God sees, you see a world that is loving, compassionate, and filled with individuals who live together in harmony and peace.

Life is short. Time is fleeting. Realize the Self. Purity of the heart is the gateway to God. Aspire. Renounce. Meditate. Be good; do good. Be kind; be compassionate. Inquire, know Thyself.

So if you have over-indulged during the holidays, for example, please don’t beat yourself up, but rather have compassion and forgiveness and perhaps, even try the Ho’oponono technique.

Compassion without detachment is attachment to the bodily platform.

We must be instruments of God’s compassion to those who are suffering.

Preacher is an instrument of compassion, not an instrument of wrath.

Compassion is a college education. It’s a doctorate.