Most people spend their entire life imprisoned within the confines of their own thoughts. They never go beyond a narrow, mind-made, personalized sense of self that is conditioned by the past.

Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.

Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.

Knowing yourself is to be rooted in Being, instead of lost in your mind.

Religion and ritual can be vehicles for entering stillness. It says in Psalm 46:10, 'Be still, and know that I am God.' But they are still just vehicles. The Buddha called his teaching a raft: You don't need to carry it around with you after you've crossed the river.

One way to become aware many times during the day is to take a conscious breath. Doing so breaks the stream of thinking.

Just as dogs love to chew bones, the mind loves to get its teeth into problems. That's why it does crossword puzzles and builds atom bombs.