Teachings on Love

When I look deeply at the moon, I breathe in and out deeply and say, “Full moon, I know you are there, and I am very happy.”

To be truly present and know that the other is also there is a miracle.

Possessive love is like a dictatorship. We want to control the one we love, dictating what they can and cannot do. In wholesome love relationships, there is a certain amount of possessiveness and attachment, but if it is excessive, both lover and beloved will suffer.

Freedom here means to transcend the trap of harmful desires.

If you want your life to be more solid each day, take refuge in things that are solid. If you lean on something that is not solid, you will fall. The Three Jewels — Buddha, Dharma and Sangha — are very solid; if you take refuge in the Three Jewels, you will be solid also.

Joyous feelings have a capacity to transform the feelings of sorrow and pain in us.

Before going to sleep at night, you take a few minutes to review the day. “Did I live in the direction of my ideals today?” If you see that you took two or three steps in that direction, that is good enough. If you did not, say to yourself, “I’ll do better tomorrow.”

When you are able to make one friend smile, her happiness will nourish you also.

When you succeed in doing this, your suffering, sorrow, and painful mental formations will begin to transform.