The mind thinks of the self as separate, the heart knows better. As one great Indian master, Sri Nisargatta, put it, "The mind creates the abyss, and the heart crosses it."

The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?

When you awaken your heart, you find to your surprise that your heart is empty.  If you search for the awakened heart, there is nothing but tenderness.  You feel sore and soft, and if you open your eyes to the rest of the world, you feel tremendous sadness.  It occurs because your heart is completely open, exposed.  It is the pure raw heart that has the power to heal the world.

We attain wisdom not by creating ideals but by learning to see things clearly, as they are.

Wisdom replaces ignorance in our minds when we realize that happiness does not lie in the accumulation of more and more pleasant feelings, that gratifying craving does not bring us a feeling of wholeness or completion.  It simply leads to more craving and more aversion.  When we realize in our own experience that happiness comes not from reaching out but from letting go, not from seeking pleasurable experience but from opening up in the moment to what is true, this transformation of understanding then frees the energy of compassion within us.  Our minds are no longer bound up in pushing away pain or holding on to pleasure.  Compassion becomes  the natural response of an open heart.

The inner stillness of a person who truly "is peace" brings peace to the whole interconnected web of life, both inner and outer.

In undertaking a spiritual life, what matters is simple: WE MUST MAKE CERTAIN THAT OUR PATH IS CONNECTED WITH OUR HEART... Even the most exalted states and the most exceptional spiritual accomplishments are unimportant if we cannot be happy in the most basic and ordinary ways, if we cannot touch one another and the life we have been given with our hearts... When we ask, "Am I following a path with heart?" we discover that no one can define for us exactly what our path should be. Instead, we must allow the mystery and beauty of this question to resonate within our being. Then somewhere within us an answer will come and understanding will arise. If we are still and listen deeply, even for a moment, we will know if we are following a path with heart.

Developing a deep quality of interest is one of the keys to the whole art of concentration. Our steadiness is nourished by the degree of interest with which we focus our meditation ... Concentration combines full interest with a delicacy of attention. This attention should not be confused with being removed or detached. Awareness does not mean separating ourselves from experience; it means allowing it and sensing it fully ... As we learn to steady the quality of our attention, it is accompanied by a deeper and deeper sense of stillness -- poised, exquisite and subtle.