Even when there is really clear awakening, that awakening is useless until it’s turned toward suffering.

What I don’t look at, what I will not face, runs my life. From a bodhisattva perspective, denial is a disaster.

How do we reconcile our behavior with the eight-fold path? Are we always deluded?

We are trying to wake up to that activity of how grasping creates the sense of self that we think we need to walk through life.

We do want people to be able to be whole, to live the full expressions of their lives, to be able to have choices about what happens. And to be able to be free in a collective way of freedom where freedom means we are caring for one another.

If we do not view and respond to every human being as a tender, vulnerable body deserving of our love, we are wrong.

Who am I in the midst of this fleeting life? How can I use myself? How can we all use ourselves? Because we are so special, each of us…

The dharma gives us the possibility to love the world and ourselves and one another. And also opens us to a further possibility of healing, of actually leaving the planet better than we found it. Like when we go camping, you know?

It is really important where we put our attention—that is our power. That is what we’re cultivating in our spiritual discipline. Do we know where we’re putting our attention? Because we do have to choose.

What do we rely on when we lose or are threatened by the loss of what we believe is critical for our well-being?