Daily Insight: Noah Levine: A Loving Relationship with Ourselves

“Loving-kindness is the experience of having a friendly and loving relationship toward ourselves as well as all others. The experience of sending loving-kindness toward ourselves is perhaps as simple as bringing a friendly attitude to our minds and bodies. Typically, we tend to judge ourselves and be quite critical and harsh in our self-assessments, identifying with the negative thoughts and feelings that arise in our minds. Being loving and kind isn’t our normal habit, so training the heart/mind to be kind is a great task. Mindfulness brings the mind’s negative habits into awareness.”

― Noah Levine, The Heart of the Revolution:
The Buddha's Radical Teachings on Forgiveness, Compassion, and Kindness

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Daily Insight: Cesar Chavez on Kindness and Compassion

“Kindness and compassion towards all living things is a mark of a civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province of any one culture or community of people.”

― Cesar Chavez

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Daily Insight: Hanya Yanagihara on the Trick of Friendship

“The only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving—and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and to try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad—or good—it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well.”

― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

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Daily Insight: On Kindness and Good Nature

“Kindness and good nature unite men more effectually and with greater strength than any agreements whatsoever, since thereby the engagements of men's hearts become stronger than the bond and obligation of words.”

― Sir Thomas More, Utopia

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Daily Insight: The Dalai Lama: Finding Greater Happiness

“To be kind, honest and have positive thoughts; to forgive those who harm us and treat everyone as a friend; to help those who are suffering and never to consider ourselves superior to anyone else: even if this advice seems rather simplistic, make the effort of seeing whether, by following it, you can find greater happiness.”

― Dalai Lama XIV,
For the Benefit of All Beings:
A Commentary on the Way of the Bodhisattva

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Daily Insight: Kind Thoughts Every Day by Dalai Lama XIV

“Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

― The Dalai Lama

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Words of Wisdom for Nov. 23, 2019: Tara Brach: A Healing Way

"The intimacy that arises in listening and speaking truth is only possible if we can open to the vulnerability of our own hearts. Breathing in, contacting the life that is right here, is our first step. Once we have held ourselves with kindness, we can touch others in a vital and healing way."

— Tara Brach, True Refuge:
Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart

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The Virtue of Kindness

Aristotle, Nietzsche, Gandhi, the Buddha, and Jesus Christ these are just a few who have extolled the virtue of kindness.

Meher Baba considered God to be synonymous with kindness.

Mark Twain called "kindness [a] language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."

Robert Louis Stevenson said kindness was "the essence of love."

Judaism teaches that "the world is built on kindness."

The 14th Dahli Lama famously declared "My religion is simple. My religion is kindness."

So what is your religion? Is it kindness? Is it something you think about from time to time? Or is is something you make a concerted effort to integrate into your every waking moment?

I wish I could answer that last question in the affirmative, but like most people, I know I could always be kinder than I am. I work on it, but not every waking moment. It’s not something I devote my life to, even though I admire those who do.

— Boz