I'm a pleaser. That's my character.

[Italian men] are like show poodles. Sometimes they look so good I want to applaud.

For most of Western civilization there was no real division between the realms of science, divinity, and artistic endeavor - they were just three strands of the same braid, all of them pulling toward the same beautiful desire: to try to understand the workings of this curious and beautiful world. There were many people who would have called themselves all three things at once: men of god, men of science, men of the arts.

in stillness, I watched myselfget eaten by mosquitoes... the itch was maddening at first but eventually it just melded into a general burning feeling and i rode that heat to a mld euphoria. I allowed the pain to lose its specific associations and become pure sensation... and that eventually lifted me out of myself and into meditation.

There's nothing special about your fear.

The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying; the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving.

I wondered, "Why have I been chasing happiness my whole life when bliss was here the entire time?