Quotes About Connection

Status quo is not very helpful for spiritual growth, for using this short interval between birth and death. On the other hand, expanding our ability to feel comfortable in our own skin and in the world, so that we can be there as much as possible for other people, is a very worthy way to spend a human life.

In a nutshell, when life is pleasant, think of others. When life is a burden, think of others. If this is the only training we ever remember to do, it will benefit us tremendously and everyone else as well.

IN ORDER to feel compassion for other people, we have to feel compassion for ourselves. In particular, to care about people who are fearful, angry, jealous, overpowered by addictions of all kinds, arrogant, proud, miserly, selfish, mean, you name it—to have compassion and to care for these people means not to run from the pain of finding these things in ourselves.

Our story lines are different, but when it comes to pain and pleasure and our reaction to them, people everywhere are the same.

Wherever you go for the rest of your life, you're always in the middle of the universe and the circle is always around you. Everyone who walks up to you has entered that scared space, and it's not an accident. Whatever comes into the space is there to teach you.

heavy emotion as a way to develop true compassion for ourselves and everyone else.

the essence of compassionate speech or compassionate action is to be there for people, without pulling back in horror or fear or anger.

The point is that we can dissolve the sense of dualism between us and them, between this and that, between here and there, by moving toward what we find difficult and wish to push away.

So when I would start to become depressed, I would remember, "Now wait a minute. Maybe I just have to figure out how to rouse myself genuinely, because there are a lot of people suffering like this, and if I can do it, they can do it.

It is unconditional compassion for ourselves that leads naturally to unconditional compassion for others.

BEING ABLE to lighten up is the key to feeling at home with your body, mind, and emotions, to feeling worthy to live on this planet.

The more we connect with a bigger perspective, the more we connect with energetic joy. Exertion is touching in to our appetite for enlightenment. It allows us to act, to give, to work appreciatively with whatever comes our way.

We can connect with that openness at any time. For instance, right now, for three seconds, just stop reading and pause. If

Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others.

the best way to serve ourselves is to love and care for others. These are powerful tools for dissolving the barriers that perpetuate the suffering of all beings.

If we find ourselves unworkable and give up on ourselves, then we'll find others unworkable and give up on them.

I just want to touch people's ears. I want to touch people's lives. I want to give them something they can release to towards their anger.

Feeling someone else's anger is bad; being left alone is worse.

Anger and embarrassment are often neighbors.

When heart speaks and heart listens, harmony is produced. When head talks and head listens, argument is produced.

My dad shaped the footballing side of me, and Mum shaped me as a person. I've always been very close to her - we've only ever had one argument, and that was over something stupid when I was 13.

It is difficult to be emphatic when no one is emphatic on the other side.

What an argument in favor of social connections is the observation that by communicating our grief we have less, and by communicating our pleasure we have more.

My wife and I have created our own language. We can be at a table with six other people and have an argument without anyone knowing. It doesn't even have to be out loud. It's bizarre.