Because I realized that all my past relationships were rooted in intense possessiveness.
How much anger and loss have I felt because I thought I had what I could not have and never had.
And how much that anger and sense of loss bound me together.
I feel so sorry for my life.
---From "I Decided to Forgive Myself"

Regardless of the anger you feel toward someone, you must remember that you are the one who experiences it first.
In order to throw hot coals at an opponent, you must first be prepared to get your hands burned by the hot coals.
---From "I Decided to Forgive Myself"

I had lived for decades believing that I was a person who loved me, yet I couldn't help but be shocked that I had never experienced or felt that essential love in myself.
I used to think that loving myself was a given, but I wonder if there were many moments when I simply pushed myself forward because I wanted to be accepted and loved by others.

---From "There is no one I love more than myself"

As I simply breathed naturally and allowed the phrase of loving-kindness to arise in my mind, and recited it with fervent longing, the love that had existed deep within me came to mind clearly.
Sometimes, with a heavy heart, with an incredibly soft breath and feeling in my chest, with the feeling of holding hands with a dear friend I had lost touch with for a long time, even with hot tears, my self-compassion revealed itself.

---From "There is no one I love more than myself"

Since the other person is not me, they cannot act the way I want them to.
Sometimes he'll do what I want him to do, but as the relationship deepens, the likelihood of him doing something else increases.
If expectations intervene in every moment, big or small, and set the right answer, then that person's response is bound to be wrong.
Each time, I had to calmly ask myself:
'Isn't it greedy of me to have these expectations?'
---From "Mostly alone, but that's pretty good"

But there is no impatience or longing in this wind.
Because when I can be that person to someone, that person will come to me.
Because even if that being never appears to me, I will still be my best friend.

---From "Mostly alone, but that's pretty good"

When I can see that the thoughts I have generated are my own, rather than just following them, desire and pride are quieted, and it puts to rest the hardships of life.
And when those desires and pride fall asleep, the heart that can truly love me comes to me like a guest in my quiet inner self.

---From "Are My Beliefs Always Right?"

The paradox of life arises precisely at this point.
It is easy to ignore the fact that we can control our lives today, while fearing death because it is something we cannot control or regulate.

---From "Thinking of a Lonely Night, a Lonely Death"

What is the meaning of this life?
Where should this life go?
Will you let that fear become a chain that drags you deeper into suffering, or will you see it for what it is and become the sharp teeth of a fish that frees itself from the net?
---From "Thinking of a Lonely Night, a Lonely Death"

I thought that if I passed, it would be a happy ending, but it wasn't until I was around thirty that I finally realized that even if I passed, there was no such thing as a happy ending.
A happy ending? I gave up on happy a long time ago, but there's no ending here.
The work that required money was constantly happening and I couldn't even think about taking a break or quitting.
The word "neverending" rather than "happy ending" fits this life much better.

---From "What does your work mean to you?"

This fundamental longing and suffering is deeply involved in the beginning of love, in its course, and in the process of its destruction.
Therefore, if we fail to reflect on this longing and suffering, the process of love will remain a process of endlessly tormenting ourselves.
We spend a lot of time and effort trying to find someone who suits our tastes, someone who just makes us feel good, someone who makes us think that nothing is wrong with our lives just because they're by our side, but we end up being the protagonists of a drama that keeps ending the same way.

---From "Why I Stopped Loving Men"

Now that I've acknowledged that I was eating to relieve my feelings of dissatisfaction and loneliness, I can feel better about not eating that way.
When I let go of all the things I was doing—forcing myself to eat, forcing myself to exercise, forcing myself to push my body—everything fell into place naturally.

---From "How I Let Go of My Craving for Food"

If you say you want to take control of your life and then easily comfort yourself with, “Everything will be okay!” or push yourself with, “Stop thinking like this!”, you will only end up further and further from being able to control yourself.
Most of us mistake other people's desires for our own, and we end up at the end of our lives, dragged along by the incessant whirlwind of our minds.

---From “If you want to live as the complete master of your own mind”

With that thought in mind, I quietly paid attention to my body.
I just put on some quiet music, dimmed the lights, lay on my right side, and placed my right arm on my left chest, near my heart.
There was a heart that beat diligently, a heart that had been beating for me without stopping for a single moment since I was created.
---From "Overcoming Depression as an Introvert"

It was only then that I realized.
I thought I was financially independent and no longer under the influence of my parents, but that wasn't true.
I was still a foolish person who blamed my parents and kept the wounds I believed I had received alive and breathing in my head.
---From “On the Pain of Blaming Parents”

When our minds are too heavy, if there is one thing we must do, it is to muster all our strength and send the light of awareness into our thoughts.

---From "Aren't you shooting the second arrow?"

If your desire to learn meditation is based solely on a desire to feel better than you do now, you need to stop and look at your heart.
Listening to a recorded guide of someone's voice, feeling good for a moment, and emptying your mind by saying 'It's okay, it's okay' is not meditation, it's hypnotizing yourself.

---From "The Real Reason Why It's Difficult to Continue Meditation"

Now, when you feel your mind starting to wander somewhere else, just stay still and pay attention to your breathing.
It is the minimum effort to bring the object of awareness into the body in order to open the mind to all the thoughts and experiences that arise.
I am reminded of the Buddha's advice: "When you observe body against body, feeling against feeling, and mind against mind, you will be able to see reality as it is."
---From "If you are filled with thoughts of wanting to escape from this situation"

It's okay if you don't do anything.
No, we should do our best to do nothing.
Just stay where you are right now, without being distracted by anything.
That's enough.

---From "You who have been running without rest, you need relaxation, not guilt"

Once you discover that there is a tranquility within you that you could not find anywhere else, life will never be the same again.
This is the realization that there is a noble realm that no one can take away.
Things that weigh you down under the weight of life will naturally disappear.
As if an old curtain had been lifted, the fundamental weight of life became lighter and simpler.
Because you can always maintain a mode of calm without trying.
---From “How to Cultivate a Calm Mind”

If I had to pick the best decision of my life, I would say it was finding true inner peace through the practice of Samatha.

---From “How to Cultivate a Calm Mind”

The moment I realized that responding to hate with hate was useless, I freed myself from it.
---From "Can you awaken self-love whenever you want?"

I hope you are not consumed by loneliness.
I hope you don't get frustrated because of loneliness.
Once you fully understand that everyone is lonely, you can stop comparing.
I hope we can acknowledge that the loneliness in my life and that person's loneliness are just different aspects of each other, and that we are not all that different.
When you can fully embrace your life in a lonely room, when you encourage yourself only through growth and reflection, that deep loneliness will not frustrate you.

---From "Facing the loneliness of life, I just want to shine on my own"