Keep your sense of humor. Stay funny.

There is competition in Zen. Let's not be ridiculous. There is competition in everything in life; being a winner in Zen means, competing and winning in the world of enlightenment.

When you sit, you've put a place on the island of the tonal for the possibility of your thoughts stopping for a short period of time.

You'll find that you will be able to reorder the island of your tonal so that it's in good shape - logical, orderly, neat, and well-defined.

You're thinking that you shouldn't have sex because you're celibate. So you just keep thinking about sex instead of enlightenment.

When I go visit my brother monks in Japan and sit down with other Zen Masters, they look at my crazy clothes and my strange expression, but they feel the power that emanates from my dedication to the practice. So they are comfortable with me, yet they're very uncomfortable.

We are going to alter the structure of our beings and also totally change what we are. This is the possibility and inevitability that meditation offers us.