Acknowledging the preciousness of each day is a good way to live, a good way to reconnect with our basic joy.

Number eight, “one-pointedness,” has two parts, with the main emphasis on this notion of fresh start.

Whatever you’re given can wake you up or put you to sleep.

If the object of meditation were something concrete, something solid and graspable—an image or a statue or a dot on the floor or a candle—it would be much more of a concentration exercise. But the breath is very elusive; even if you wanted to give it one hundred percent attention, it would be difficult because it is so ephemeral, so light, so airy

When thoughts come up, touch them very lightly, like a feather touching a bubble. Let the whole thing be soft and gentle, but at the same time precise.

Therefore, if you want to hear the dharma, you can hear it from many different places, but you are uncommitted until you actually encounter a particular way that rings true in your heart and you decide to follow it. Then you make a connection with that particular lineage of teachings and that particular body of wisdom.

All that you need in order to do tonglen is to have experienced suffering and to have experienced happiness.

You begin to explore, with a lot of humor and generosity toward yourself, all the places where you cling, and every time you cling, you realize, “Ah! This is where, through my mindfulness and my tonglen and everything that I do, my whole life is a process of learning how to make friends with myself.” On the other hand, this need to cling, this need

Wholeheartedness is a precious gift, but no one can actually give it to you. You have to find the path that has heart and then walk it impeccably. In doing that, you again and again encounter your own uptightness, your own headaches, your own falling flat on your face. But in wholeheartedly practicing and wholeheartedly following that path, this