I once asked the teacher Gil Fronsdal what he did in his own practice. He paused and then smiled and said, “I stop for suffering.” This is where practice begins: facing suffering in ourselves and others.

Compassion-focused meditation stimulates specific parts of the brain involved with the sense of connection, positive emotion, and reward, including the middle orbitofrontal cortex, behind where your eyebrows meet.

an undisturbable stillness.

The painful residues of events can get caught in the nets of emotional memory, but without context and perspective. The conscious mind may forget, but as Babette Rothschild wrote, the body remembers.

For a day, or even just an hour, use only wise speech (that is, well intended, true, beneficial, not harsh, timely, and—if possible—welcome).

Please go at your own pace and, as a teacher told me many years ago, keep going.

Whatever your object is, try to remain steadily mindful of it. Be aware of the sense of applying attention to an object, like shifting a spotlight onto something. Also be aware of sustaining attention to an object—staying in touch with it continuously.

Martin Buber described two fundamental types of relationships: I-Thou and I-It.

Every so often, slow down to recognize that life in general, and your body and brain in particular, are making this moment’s experience of hearing and seeing, thinking and feeling.