Being a Buddhist monk means never losing one's optimism in spite of all difficulties. It also means being harder on yourself than any of your teachers ever were.

The kundalini energy is often compared to a snake that is coiled up. Because it is coiled up it can spring very quickly. It can jump and extend itself very far.

Occupy yourself with what's in your life now. Address those situations and subjects as fully as possible with your best efforts. That is what produces happiness and clarity and knowledge and power.

Love has its own independent form and formlessness. When someone loves you be gratiful for it. If they stop loving be grateful for that. If they love another, let them love!

That's why their realization is not integrated and complete, and they must go through many, many lifetimes very often before that acceptance will take place.

You must constantly check that you are meditating properly, and not become, what Clint Eastwood refers to as, "a legend in your own mind."

Who are these human beings anyway? They walk around, strut, fret, as if they owned the planet, or the goddamned universe. I mean, who do they really think they are?