I had been a kind of natural mystic my whole life, growing up there in Tennessee next to the river. Somehow, that was important for my consciousness. I still don't study [mysticism]. I just wait for experiences.

Ramana Maharshi and Rumi would agree: the joy of being human is in uncovering the core we already are, the treasure buried in the ruin.

Just being sentient and in a body with the sun coming up is a state of rapture.

It's such a foolish thing to argue about names, when what we're doing is all one thing.

If you think there's an important difference between being a Christian or a Jew or a Hindu or a Muslim or a Buddhist, then you're making a division between your heart, what you love with, and the way you act in the world.

It's a beautiful lucid dream that has language that I can fiddle with.

[Rumi] is trying to get us to feel the vastness of our true identity... like the sense you might get walking into a cathedral.