The ashram is where everyone lives in the same building or on the same grounds. You feel that it's selfish for you to devote your life to one person. You don't just love the one, you love the many also.

In the world of interactive multi-media highways we are all traveling somewhere interactively and we are all shopping for something, our dreams, our hopes, our ambitions for ourselves, for those we love - these little scenarios we play out endlessly in our mind.

No self-effort in the direction of enlightenment is ever wasted. Even if you don't become fully enlightened in a given lifetime, you will be much happier and more aware.

Gain control of the emotions. Be the helmsperson and not blown around by the winds of emotion. While there will be winds, you can navigate them or even use them to expedite your journey.

The third stage is no thought. No thought is not the end of meditation. It is the beginning of higher meditation.

You want to be happy; of course, that isn't how you get to be happy; because if you want to be happy, you are going to be sitting around being unhappy because you're not happy.

The primary quality that Lao Tzu seems to emobdy is humility, which is the image of water - seeking the common level of existence.