"I realized that the emotional climate (the media) was describing wasn't at all unique to the modern age. From the twenty-five-hundred-year-old perspective of Buddhism, every chapter in human histbry could be described as an "age of anxiety." The anxiety we feel now has been part of the human condition for centuries. In general, we respond to this basic unease and the dis- turbing emotions that arise from it in two distinct ways. We try to escape or we succumb. Either route often ends up creating more complications and problems in our lives.

Buddhism offers a third option. We can look directly at the dis- turbing emotions and other problems we experience in our lives as stepping-stones to freedom. Instead of rejecting them or surrendering to them, we can befriend them, working through them to reach an enduring, authentic experience of our inherent wisdom, confidence, clarity, and joy.  -- Mingyur Rinpoche