If there's no background, no foreground, no opposition, no complements, then there's no change becasue there's no subject and object.

Beginning meditation is a process of unhooking ourselves from thought, being motivated to meditate. It is very exciting in the beginning because we see the tremendous jumps we make in awareness.

We call it the transmission of the lamp in Zen. That's when we take enlightened states of mind and literally, you can transfer them, just like you can hand somebody flowers.

If we don't get violent with ourselves, castigate ourselves, ostracize ourselves and excommunicate ourselves because we didn't live up to the standards we set down for ourselves, then maybe we don't have to do that with other people.

Some people like destroying for the hell of it; they love destroying beauty; they try to feel those people and then crack the egg.

There are seven primary centers, junctions, within the subtle physical body. These are called the seven chakras.

I went through times of self-hate, thinking how undeveloped spiritual I was. Everyone else in the ashram, a thousand people, nobody had a girlfriend or boyfriend. I did.