Answers from the Heart: Practical Responses to Life's Burning Questions

when you look at your body, you have to learn to see that this is only a small part of you. It’s like a rain cloud up in the sky that looks down and sees that half of herself is already down on Earth in the form of a river. The cloud in the sky smiles to the cloud on Earth and says, “Enjoy your journey, I will join you soon.”

Non-fear, the insight that there’s no birth and no death, is the greatest gift given to us by the practice of looking deeply.

We have to realize that while we’re suffering physical pain, there are still many unpainful elements in us such as solidity, well-being, and trust.

We all have a natural tendency to avoid suffering, and that’s not good for us. Without suffering we can’t grow as human beings, we can’t learn to become more understanding and compassionate.

It’s very important to realize your path and see your true way.

It should become a habit to plan in such a way that we have plenty of time to do each thing and we don’t have to rush.

It’s wonderful to have a camera—and it’s wonderful not to have a camera.

And after that, when the emotion is about to come up, the child will know what to do. She will see that she can easily survive her emotions.

You’ll no longer be afraid of hardship and suffering, because your heart will be big enough to embrace it all. You’ll no longer have the tendency to exclude. You’ll only want to embrace the whole world. And every daily practice—walking , sitting, smiling, and breathing—will take you in the direction of bodicitta.

Look deeply into your anger, and you might see that your anger has been created by your wrong perceptions, wrong views, and misunderstanding; and when you realize that, your anger is transformed.