Just as seeing-eye dogs (Carrot is one), our minds need training in order to become our guides and allies. To meditate is to train the mind to be insightful, to become a seeing-eye mind.

The path that brings us to a place of openness requires learning from the actual circumstances of our outer and inner lives.

The tendency to relate to others through a sense of possessiveness, through clinging, creates suffering; so does clinging to ourselves as the "aggregates". To relinquish possessiveness is to open the doors to freedom.

Pain and loss are inevitable occurrences in our lives, but the self-torture that often follows--the "second arrow" we habitually shoot at ourselves--is entirely avoidable.

In spite of the deep longing to connect with the earthiness of things and ourselves there is also a pull to disconnect. How can we reconnect, become of the earth?

In searching for who we are, instead of latching on to a solidified image, let us explore our relationships.

Rather than looking at problems as items to be solved, let us use them to discover that existence is unproblematic.

Contemplating family as family is a fifth foundation of mindfulness for householders.

There are two way of looking at commitment. One attempts to freeze relationships in time; the other has to do with the moment.

When we can not see any possibility outside of say, success vs. failure, we imprison ourselves. The same is true for control vs. out-of-control.