Illumination in the outer world is to be happy no matter what is going on. In the inner world, it's more ineffable. It's harder to express.

How do you become enlightened? I don't know: Luck, karma, skill, friends in high places, friends in low places.

There is a definite way to do this. There is a training program that you will go through and it's delightful. It's absolutely beautiful.

I can assure you, as a practitioner of Buddhism, that there are ten thousand states of mind, at least, give or take a few billion.

Another condition can be attained ... a condition of ecstasy. A condition so far from what the people of planet Earth experience it's not even discussable.

I was very drawn to music of all types, from Beethoven to Jimi Hendrix. There were musicians and composers who obviously were expressing a vision that was beyond the mundane.

After several minutes, picture that your entire body is merging with the blue sky. Feel that you have become the infinite blue sky that stretches endlessly in every direction.