Quotes About Understanding

Oh, Marty"—as in Martin Luther King, Jr.—"used to say to me, 'You have to love everybody.' And I would say, 'No, I don't. I'm only going to love the people that deserve to be loved.' And Marty would laugh and say, 'No, no, no. You have to love everybody.

Vulnerability should be the thing that brings us closer than anything because we all share that.

Mindfulness practice helps create space between our actual experiences and the reflexive stories we tend to tell about them.

it's human nature to want to seize control when the people we love are suffering. But trying to impose our personal agenda on someone else's experience is the shadow side of love, while real love recognizes that life unfolds at its own pace.

May the actions that I take toward the good, toward understanding myself, toward being more peaceful be of benefit to all beings everywhere. And

When emotions are long held and extremely complex, it sometimes takes years for them to enter fully into awareness.

No matter what we think we should do, I don't think you can coerce yourself into loving your neighbor—or your boss—when you can't stand him. But if you try to understand your feelings of dislike with mindfulness and compassion, being sure not to forget self-compassion, you create the possibility for change.

Feelings of apathy as they relate to our relationships often stem from insufficiently paying attention to those around us.

When we identify the thoughts that keep us from seeing others as they truly are we prepare the ground for real love.

All beings want to be happy, yet so very few know how.

One foundation of loving relationships is curiosity, keeping open to the idea that we have much to learn even about those we have been close to for decades.

How we traverse the space between us when conflict arises has a profound effect on the health and longevity of our relationships.

Setting the intention to practice kindness toward one's partner or family members or friends does not preclude getting angry or upset.

Intellectually, we may appreciate that loving ourselves would give us a firm foundation but for most of us this is a leap of logic, not a leap of the heart.

Awareness levels the playing field. We are all humans doing the best we can.

We learn from conflicts only when we are willing to do so.

It's all too easy to slot someone into the category of "needing help" and not to recognize the tremendous help they are offering to others.

Mindfulness may help you gain insight into your role in conflicts with others, it won't single-highhandedly help you resolve them.

These are times when sympathetic joy comes naturally, but in a complex relationship the heart may not leap up so easily.

Real love allows for failure and suffering.

but as an Indian, I find it far easier to forgive than to forget.

History belongs in the past; but understanding it is the duty of the present.

I do not look to history to absolve my country of the need to do things right today. I seek to understand the wrongs of yesterday, both to grasp what has brought us to our present reality and to understand the past for itself.

History belongs to the past, but understanding it is the duty of the present