We don’t need to get several university degrees, work hard, and save up a lot of money to buy it. We don’t need special opportunities or amazing luck. We only need this heart, which is right here within us, accessible at all times.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

In my post in May, I wrote about the need for being kind to ourselves. For many of us, it doesn’t come easily. A few of you commented on how important it is to learn more about it and to keep learning.

There is a real risk when we first become painfully aware of how unkind and harsh we can be towards ourselves that this precious wake up moment becomes a new stick we use to beat ourselves up with. Self-compassion — another thing we fail at, right?

The practice of being our own best friend when we feel hurt, isolated, alone, stressed, sad, or helpless, I believe, deserves much more attention. Here is a beautiful small treasure of a book I have read recently. It’s called “Training in Tenderness” by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

What is tsewa? A human quality we all share: the innate tenderness of our own heart or tsewa in Tibetan. Thankfully, this book is not another self-help guide that is showing us in 5, 8, or 10 handy ways how we should feel better when we feel bad. It is refreshing in that it is free of the hype of short-sighted advice, also of any sentimentality or lofty philosophy. It describes with a kind, easy-to-read voice, how we can move beyond grudges, low self-esteem, old hurts, and self-destructive stories.

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche writes, “When it is warm with tenderness and affection toward others, our own heart can give us the most pure and profound happiness that exists and enable us to radiate that happiness to others. That happiness is right here within us. It is not something on the outside for which we need to search and strive. We don’t need to get several university degrees, work hard, and save up a lot of money to buy it. We don’t need special opportunities or amazing luck. We only need this heart, which is right here within us, accessible at all times.”

This may sound too simple—even simplistic. If happiness is so accessible, then why are so many of us unhappy? And if we do experience periods of happiness, why is our happiness so unreliable and difficult to maintain? The reason is that although this joyous, warm heart is part of our nature, most of the time its glow is hidden from us.”

This small inspirational book leads you back to the warm heart that glows within you.