Take 2 heaping cups of Patience 1 heart full of Love 2 handfuls of Generosity Sprinkle with Kindness Add plenty of Faith Mix well and spread over a period of a lifetime and serve everybody you meet.

True love is made of four elements: loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In Sanskrit, these are, maitri, karuna, mudita, and upeksha.

Shallow understanding accompanies shallow compassion. Great understanding goes with great compassion.

Understanding is a gift. The other person may feel understood for the first time. Understanding is the other name of love. If you don't understand, you can't love. If you don't understand your son, you can't love him. If you don't understand your mother, you can't love her. To offer understanding means to offer love. Without understanding, the more we love, the more we make ourselves and others suffer.

Love is a living, breathing thing. There is no need to force it to grow in a particular direction. If we start by being easy and gentle with ourselves, we will find it is just there inside of us, solid and healing.

We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love. We must look deeply in order to see and understand the needs, aspirations, and suffering of the person we love. This is the ground of real love. You cannot resist loving another person when you really understand him or her.

As a practitioner, you can create holiness. Holiness cannot be bestowed on us by someone else. ... We are a saint when we can produce holiness.

While practicing mindfulness, don't be dominated by the distinction between good and evil, thus creating a battle within oneself.

When we look deeply and honestly at our own suffering, energies, and views, we find a peace that comes from being comfortable in our own bodies. But our true home is not only inside us. Once we have become comfortable in ourselves, then we can begin listening deeply to the suffering of our loved ones, and begin understanding their experiences and views. Then we can become a true home for each other.

When you practice building a home in yourself, you become more and more beautiful. You radiate your inner peace, warmth, and joy.

Whenever you find yourself judging your partner, go back to your in-breath and out-breath and ask, How can I see this differently? Can I look more deeply to better understand her suffering and her difficulties?

With understanding and compassion, you will be able to heal the wounds in your heart, and the wounds in the world.