Learning occurs most powerfully when you acknowledge fully what you are at this very moment with truthfulness and authenticity, and also compassion. You are your history, in this special sense. If you accept this, then you’ll be able to learn and improve your relationships, your self-expression, and your well-being. If you reject this, you’ll spend the rest of your life looking for an imaginary “right” world of safety.

Truly listening involves relating to another person not through your internal filter but in a quiet, observant, connected way.

Awareness of your body allows you to act with dignity and power.

Listening, I’ve come to understand, is bearing witness to lives unfolding, to lives being discovered. Deep listening, listening compassionately, means guiding, gently nudging, or sometimes shoving people down the path of radical self-inquiry so they can make their way to their own truest selves. Then, and only then, can they lead with the dignity and grace of being human.

And watch what happens to you. The more deeply you understand other people, the more you will appreciate them, the more reverent you will feel about them. To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.