I want to have a lasting experience of God.

Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line from the Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus: 'You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.

True wisdom gives the only possible answer at any given moment, and that night, going back to bed was the only possible answer.

Man is a demon, man is a god. Both true.

Prayer is a relationship; half the job is mine. If I want transformation, but can't even be bothered to articulate what, exactly, I'm aiming for, how will it ever occur? Half the benefit of prayer is in the asking itself, in the offering of a clearly posed and well-considered intention. If you don't have this, all your pleas and desires are boneless, floppy, inert; they swirl at your feet in a cold fog and never lift.

There is a reason they call God a presence - because God is right here, right now. In the present is the only place to find Him, and now is the only time.

I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on the water.