By Spring Washam, an excerpt from her book ‘A Fierce Heart: Finding Strength, Courage, and Wisdom in Any Moment’

“When we’re purifying ourselves, when we’re letting go of ancestral sorrows, it doesn’t necessarily come with bliss and light. I had expected serenity and moments connecting to nature. I had imagined it would be all beauty. We want liberation; we want to be awakened. We want to understand the Four Noble Truths without feeling the suffering or anything else too difficult.  But that’s not how it happens.”