Practicing being gentle with yourself helps awaken your genuine heart. This compassion, this clarity, this openness is like something we have forgotten. Lightening up in your practice, sitting there being gentle with yourself, you are rediscovering something.
Life is a constant series of opportunities. Whatever comes to you, you must engage it somehow. You may receive it, you may alter it, or you may let it pass; this way you will be in harmony with the essential nature of life. Participating fully in life is the way to success and happiness.
Listen to people, respond to their needs only when asked, do not manipulate them, do not give advice. If you give advice, do you notice that most people don’t act on it? And it probably frustrates you that they didn’t, even though you “know what’s best for them”?
Every relationship between individuals bears in it the danger that a wrong turn may be taken, leading to misunderstandings and disagreements. If you remain mindful and aware, you will succeed in avoiding the pitfalls that confront close relationships with others.
Quote: Bring your shift away from accumulation to contribution.