‘If my mind didn’t cling, I would be totally fearless. Nothing would frighten me, because there would be nothing I would be afraid to lose and nothing I would need to be happy. But my mind does still cling, so I am sometimes frightened that I won’t have what I think I need or that I’ll lose what I think I want. It’s not such a big problem anymore because fear doesn’t frighten me as much as it used to. I know it’s from clinging, and I know it will pass. I can tell myself, “I’m frightened now because even though I know what’s true, I have forgotten it right now. I know the possibility of remembering exists.” That possibility, that conviction, gives me a lot of hope in the middle of the biggest fright.’ (It’s Easier Than You Think)

One of the students I sometimes work with is leaving town, and he offered my Sylvia Boorstein’s book as he thought I could find useful passages in it for my teaching. There is a wonderful simplicity in what she writes, in a way that reminds me of Blanche, and perhaps that is the key: a lifetime of wisdom refined to the essence.