high fever will begin to hallucinate and see all kinds of delusions. So, for example, if you fail to recognize the red, ruby light of the wisdom of discernment, it arises as fire, for it is the pure essence of the fire

loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity toward limitless living beings.6 Through a practice of deep contemplation, you cultivate these four qualities to such a degree that they become boundless and immeasurable.

Compassion is not true compassion unless it is active. Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion, is often represented in Tibetan iconography as having a thousand eyes that see the pain in all corners of the universe, and a thousand arms to reach out to all corners of the universe to extend his help.

However, harm and suffering have no objective existence; what gives them their existence and their power is only our aversion to them.

As Tibet’s famous poet saint, Milarepa, said: “My religion is to live—and die—without regret.”

True spirituality also is to be aware that if we are interdependent with everything and everyone else, even our smallest, least significant thought, word, and action have real consequences throughout the universe.

in a world dedicated to distraction, silence and stillness terrify us; we protect ourselves from them with noise and frantic busyness.

the Tibetan Book of the Dead without the benefit of the oral instructions and training that fully explain its sacred meaning, they have oversimplified it and jumped to quick conclusions. One

That is how life is. Nothing, nothing at all, has any lasting character.