Once you have personally experienced enlightenment, you will see beyond the ocean of death to the everlasting shores of immortality.

There's no risk in doing a lousy meditation or not meditating at all. There's no risk in being convenient and comfortable. There's a lot of risk in the world of enlightenment.

The person who takes power will never be happy with those things they gain. They have lost their essential balance and innocence. And without innocence, nothing can further, as they say in the I Ching.

Compassion and empathy are not the same as feeling sorry for oneself. They are emotions that extend our perceptual ranges.

When you draw from the endless awareness of nirvana, you are no longer a slave to fortune. When pleasant experiences come your way, you can enjoy them. But if pain and misfortune befall you, you can rise above them and remain unaffected.

The vast majority of the students I have taught have become self-sufficient and confident individuals who enjoy their lives.

Children are wise in a funny kind of way. They haven't developed so many vested interests of self. There is a wisdom, a lack of self-consciousness, that is innocence.