Joan Halifax

When I first was exposed to Buddhism in the mid-1960s, I said it was so practical and utterly pragmatic. That's what attracted me to Buddhism.

Compassion has enemies, and those enemies are things like pity, moral outrage, fear.

Most of us are shrinking in the face of psycho-social and physical poisons, of the toxins of our world. But compassion, the generation of compassion, actually mobilizes our immunity.

A surgeon is surrounded by people who are sick, discouraged, afraid, embittered, dying - but also courageous, loving, wise, compassionate and alive.

I'm consistently telling stories about the value of the human condition and connectedness and things like that.

I'm a big action junkie. I grew up on the '80s action movies - the bad ones and the good ones.