In the stillness of today's meditation, I say with Slogan #19: "All dharma agrees at one point." This teaching beautifully highlights that all spiritual paths converge on one fundamental truth: the interconnectedness of all beings.

Imagine that we’re sitting together having tea, holding space for both conversation and shared silence. These slogans have a direct application and practical relevance to our lives right now.

Slogan 18 addresses a profound topic: how to die. I used to be terrified of the thought of my loved ones finding my lifeless body in my apartment, days or even weeks after my passing.

The five strengths are instructions on how to live and how to die; we learn how to live by learning how to die and we learn how to die by learning how to live.

During my meditation today, I focused on Slogan #17: "Practice the Five Strengths, the condensed heart instructions." These strengths—strong determination, familiarization, the positive seed, reproach, and aspiration—guide us on the path to enlightenment.

The five strengths of Slogan #17 are determination, familiarization, virtue, reproach and aspiration. This slogan is a celebration of joyful effort and loving kindness to all aspects of life.

After sitting in meditation for 20 minutes, I reflected on what I wrote two years ago, which eventually became my mantra for my practice today. Life is full of surprises, and meditation, whether it is yoga, music, writing, or walking outside in nature, reminds us to meet each guest with an open heart.

Let’s “mind the gap” – we are training our minds to notice the pauses, however infinitesimal, between breaths in order to transfer this skill to different situations or contexts in our everyday lives.

This morning, I sat down with my journal and reflected on Slogan #15: "Four practices are the best of methods.”

Norman Fischer offers a pithy, reality-driven translation of slogan #15: “Do good, avoid evil, appreciate your lunacy, pray for help.”

During my 12 PM Hatha flow class, I reflected on Slogan #14: "Seeing confusion as the four kayas is unsurpassable shunyata protection." This teaching suggested that confusion could become an opportunity for deeper understanding and protection.

At first glance, this slogan appears to be abstract, obscure or esoteric. However, instead of turning away from our lived experience of not being able to figure things out, let’s turn towards it and examine its hidden meanings in order to transform our understanding of this slogan.

It has been 13 days of 20 minutes of daily sitting and using different doorways to practice. This morning I recited the following mantra for my practice.

Others have an uncanny ability to show us exactly where we’re stuck and to trigger typical reactions of fight, flight, or freeze. In fact, life is filled with frustrations, resentments, and grudges.

During meditation today, I focused on blame. I noticed how it arises in me and the patterns it follows.

My rewrite for this slogan is: “inhale in blame and exhale out praise” which of course, is a variation of Tonglen.

Today, I found myself in the midst of a challenging Annual General Meeting. It was my first time participating as a board member, listening intently and casting my votes. The relentless stream of documents to review was overwhelming, draining my energy and leaving my body feeling heavy and depleted.

Wisdom without compassion and loving-kindness is bondage. Loving-kindness is a heartfelt yearning for the well-being and happiness of others, based on a similar yearning for oneself.

Today, I turned to the Surya Mudra – the Mudra of the Sun – to help reduce my anxiety. This simple yet powerful gesture became a beacon of calm in my practice.

In order to develop greater compassion and to hold space for the suffering of others, it’s important to begin with yourself.