Everything that you see before you with your physical eyes is an illusion. In other words, you are not seeing correctly. Life is made up of light. But if you are only looking through the senses, it seems solid and physical.

Happiness is not freedom. You may become happy tomorrow; but I assure you, your happiness will be smashed by the pains of your body as you age, by the all-encompassing death that swallows up everything and everyone in this world.

Expect forces to interfere with you and expect to conquer them all, if you are serious about the study. Just as there are powers that interfere with those who seek enlightenment, there are forces that will help.

As you do your daily meditations, your life will change. Most people change between the ages of zero to four. The older we get the less we change. When we meditate we become perpetually young.

People who want to go to power places all of the time and want to be around powerful people, they don't last long in the study.

There is really only one Zen Master ... and that's yourself.

You will have to put aside some things in your life, habits, ideas, ways of seeing life. You will have to learn new things, and then new things and then new things - forever.