For many years I had been deeply identified with thinking and the painful, heavy emotions that had accumulated inside. My thought activity was mostly negative, and my sense of identity was also mostly negative, although I tried hard to prove to myself and to the world that I was good enough by working very hard academically. But even after I had achieved academic success, I was happy for two weeks or three and then the depression and anxiety came back.

You need no time to open yourself to the power of now and so awaken to who you are beyond name and form and realize that in the depth of your being, you are already complete, whole, one with the timeless essence of all life.

Stress is extremely harmful to the body. Even mainstream medicine is recognizing how many diseases stress causes.

It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.

The ego is just waiting to identify with anything. Whether it's your misery or being a great meditator, it seeks some identification.

Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.

That is the challenge of a spiritual teacher: not to take on board the projections of specialness people have. This is especially dangerous for spiritual teachers who only have contact with disciples or followers, who may live in an ashram.