If the nature of this world, if its reality is as we have been led to believe by our society at large, then one's daily dose of suffering is sure to be seen as undesirable and, above all, unnecessary; a thing to avoid at all costs, that with ample fortune or favor we may hope to escape altogether. But if the Reality of our individual lives, its True Measure of Success is not to be determined...

We must not fear these wild pulsations of hope-filled feelings too deep to hold... for they have an accord with themselves, and their own path to follow. These sometimes too strong stirrings of that unbearable wish for a compassion that can embrace all of creation must not be dampened simply because we don't understand the pressing of their presence in us. They are not asking us to know what...