Start Where You Are: How to accept yourself and others

we can see that blaming others doesn’t work.

an anthropologist named Alfred Kroeber

you continually get the teachings that you need in order to open your heart.

Bodhichitta has three qualities: (1) it is soft and gentle, which is compassion; (2) at the same time, it is clear and sharp, which is called prajna; and (3) it is open. This last quality of bodhichitta is called shunyata and is also known as emptiness.

This sudden unreasonableness that comes out of nowhere is called a dön. It wakes you up, and you should regard that as best, rather than try to get rid of the problem.

If you are judgmental, you can even be curious about that.

Reproach can be very powerful. You yourself teach yourself the dharma in your own words. You can teach yourself the four noble truths, you can teach yourself about taking refuge – anything that has to do with that moment when you’re just about to re-create samsara

Ishi lived in northern California at the beginning of the century. Everyone in his whole tribe had been methodically killed,

“Well, my life has taught me to be more curious than afraid.”