I get only one chance to live this life, and I’d love not to make a mess of it.

That’s what the bodhisattva vow is about. Vow to benefit all beings. This is our intention, our effort, our focus. How can we benefit others? Please work on that. Please help others to work on it.

every action that we take has an effect on our life and the lives of those around us. And so we become more awake to the actions we take, the actions of body, speech, and mind.

that kind of slight switch of saying, “Oh, good, I noticed. Now I can stop,” instead of, “Oh, bad, I’m doing it again”—that slight switch is very, very helpful. It allows you to notice sooner, because instead of getting hit with a stick, you’re going to get a little pat on the back

the thing is not to deny it or turn away from it but to recognize it, let the fact of the limited nature of our life be an encouragement to live it well, to live it in a way that benefits everyone, not to get caught up in fear and self-clinging and forget our connection with everything and everyone but to live our life in a way that makes of it a g

this practice was not some exotic trip or a passing fad but a matter of life and death that required an equal commitment from us to meet him completely with our whole heart.

This is the whole point of mindful awareness: to be able to live our life truly as we wish to live it

it’s really beneficial for us to recognize, each time we encounter another being, that we are already connected just by being alive. We’re all living one life in some way.

at some point you need to “dig one deep hole instead of many shallow holes,” as