You have to be a warrior in order to become enlightened. If you think it's tough paying the bills, think about being everywhere all at once and doing everything in all the universes, simultaneously, past, present, and future.

The big problem with power, of course, is obsession. Once you get some of it and feel it, it dominates your whole life and it's all you can think about. That doesn't have to happen.

People think they can tame the earth. How absurd! The vanity of human wishes is endless. It is more fun to dance with life.

Deluded beings think that if they get in a battle with a Zen Master or with a Don Juan, that it's going enhance their life if they win. You can never take power from someone else any more than you can take sunlight.

Sometimes their immediate reaction is to want to run away because they realize inwardly that the transpositions their life will go through will be remarkable, change everything.

Without enlightenment, everything in life is harsh. Sooner or later you see everyone you love die, unless you die first, of course. This causes you to suffer.

I was drawn to be very solitary as a scholar. I lived a very quiet life, aloof, with my books, with my walks in nature, meditating, and of course with my teacher.