In the West, we think of sports and athletics as individual achievement, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat; it all revolves around the ego. This has nothing to do with the Zen of sports and athletics.

In the world of Buddhist mind, in the advanced states, we go beyond time, space, life, death and Newsweek.

In Tantric Zen you can be humorous and make fun of anything or you can be very serious.

It has been my experience as a teacher over the years and incarnations that what really counts are not techniques. What really counts is spirit, love. What really counts is a sense of propriety and dedication.

We applaud the people who are film stars, who get elected to an office, who are very athletic, the small group who play with power in a very limited way. But we're completely oblivious to what can be done to the infinite realities that exist in front of us. We deny them.

Nirvana is a state of perpetual bliss and ecstasy, unaffected by the transient ups and downs of its own creations.

You will gain energy by meditating deeply, by speaking the truth, by learning to be still and by avoiding the crowd, most of the time, not all of the time.