Patience is essential in the practice of meditation. Attaining a peaceful mind or spiritual growth is not a matter of being more qualified or intelligent than others. More often, success belongs to those who cultivate steadily with dedication and endurance, succeeding through relentless effort. Furthermore, such progress is frequently the fruition of cultivation across many past lives. Because the timing of advancement is unpredictable, one must let go of expectations for immediate success and instead learn to be at ease with one’s progress. (D-820129-2)

It is to be borne in mind that arguments will lead to a dead end. Wisdom is indeed silence. But if you must speak, speak with humility, speak with the good intention of passing on your experience, and speak with the purpose of imparting knowledge, but avoid feeling that whatever you have spoken should be listened to. (D-820212-1)

Harmony
Live for the benefit of bringing about meaning to others and to yourself, and there will be harmony between you and those who are about you. And those who have experienced such harmony will in turn spread it to others. But do not expect things to be as you hope it to be because not all people have the same kind of inclinations and cultivations, and being unlike in nature, you must expect to live in a world of discord, and not until realisation hits them that a good world depends on the behaviour of each being! (D-820224-3)

Those who think that life is good living and fun at all times will have to end up in grave despair when the realities of living confront them at certain times of their lives. Those who do not spend time to cultivate and to understand the nature of their minds will be as ships without rudders, and they have wasted yet another chance of a lifetime. (D-820209-2)

To allow your mind to direct your activities without control is to live a life without any discipline. To have such a mind, you will find it difficult to understand what life is. To possess such a state of mind is to be ignorant of the joys of a calm and quiet mind. (D-820209-1)

The Virtue of Patience
To be patient is to be able to take a lot of difficulties and pains and undesirable situations with full stride and confidence without complaints because even such sufferings are not permanent. To be patient is to be able to accept all kinds of people, even those who speak ill of you and your religion. To be patient, you will need to undergo severe tests in your daily lives, and until the day arrives when you can accept all that comes unto you with a calm mind, you have not achieved this great virtue yet. (D-820224-1)

No matter what others say about your practice, do not be disturbed by their comments; just be sure that you are true to your motivation and Path and aim to continue practising whatever way you feel is suitable to you as long as the deeds of body, speech, and mind are pure in essence and are performed for the benefit of others. Be patient with painful remarks, be sturdy in cultivation, and be humble in your attitude, and there is no way that they can disturb you! (D-831201-1)

To make a day pleasant, start with a calm mind, maintain love and understanding for others, and look forward to giving any help that you can give without making any distinction in your act. Whether an act is charitable or not, that is not to be considered just as long as you have the heart to provide some help that will benefit someone; that is a good act. And evil acts are those that bring suffering and harm to others. Knowing this, it is not difficult to know whether each act that you perform is good or evil. (D-820205-5)

Giving assistance to the poor, homeless, and sick is to practise loving-kindness and compassion. It is also a means of understanding very clearly the meaning of life and the experiencing of impermanence.
Continue to cultivate with sincerity and zeal so that nothing can change your aim. It must be that as long as you have life, you must practise that which is good and abandon that which is evil. (D-831205-1)

Knowing the importance of leading a life that is worthwhile, many know that to cultivate is to bring great rewards to future lives, and many already know what is best for them if they were to walk the Path to Liberation, but how many are following and practising what the knowledge has given them? (D-820128-1)

When you are the one who lives and appreciates each moment of the day, the day is well spent, and idle hours will not be wasted but will be spent in true cultivation, especially the cultivation of the mind. The mind must be looked into; the mind must be calmed so that at all times of the day, you are aware of the happenings, and you will be right on the Path with clarity and awareness. (D-820126-2)

The fifteenth day of the lunar month is a very auspicious day for the beings who revere it. On this day, the moon is at its brightest, and so is the receptivity of those capable of feeling the wholeness and oneness of its influence. Keep this day pure, keep this day holy, and keep this day calm, just as you can feel the calmness of the moon, just as the light of the moon can bring such indescribable feelings of serenity to your mind and to the universe. (D-820208-1)

What have you done today? What have you achieved? There is no need to achieve in the material sense in order to consider it as an achievement. As long as you have spent your time fruitfully and have brought about no harm to others but have instead been in the position to make the day more pleasant for others, and as long as you know what you are doing each moment, you’re living! (D-820126-3)

Kuan Yin worship is the most natural thing in the universe. Just by being a true person who cares for others and helps others at any time they need your help or at any time you are confronted with a situation and you provide the help—that is Kuan Yin worship. When you are able to hold on to noble aspirations and all your actions of body, speech, and mind are motivated by compassion, that kind of worship is very much better and purer than any of the established methods of worship, no matter how long they have been founded. (D-831123-1)

Go about your life with a grander purpose and learn to live in happiness with your own self and then with others. If that is already your purpose, then practise compassion and cultivate the virtues of life so as to avoid any act that is unwholesome and brings harm to yourself and to others. (D-831121-2)

Try to learn to accept life as it comes. Be content with what you have. When your family is well, be grateful; when you have enough to provide for your family, be satisfied; when you have good health, be joyful that you have more happiness than others already, and this should start you to cultivate diligently and give some thoughts to the sufferings of others. (D-831121-1)

Aspirations are the greatest motivations in the search for liberation. No one can tell you how you should practice or how you should live your life. By yourself you will commit yourself to the Path that is good, that will lead you to liberation. There is no need to seek the help of a guru or a god to help you through, for there is no convenient way. Dharma must be learned by oneself and then practised to know the meanings. One cannot wish for attainment. (D-831115-1)

The mind needs nothing, just the purification of all defilements that are causing you to be in this state of living, of trapping you into miserable existences. Nothing can be of any real benefit to you. Leave that which brings about encrustments, want nothing, fear nothing, just live each day well and in full awareness of the actions of body, speech, and mind, and ensure that non-virtuous deeds are avoided. Practise the good qualities of the bodhisattvas and see the real joy within them; all other worldly joys are really empty joys, temporary and ending in suffering and disappointment. (D-831109-4)