When you die you forget. Death is a sleep, a forgetting. You forget about your previous lifetime. The essence of your being is the same. But at death, the personality dissolves

When you visit the Zen Monasteries, one of the first things required is that you bring a donation. They have to pay for those monasteries. The upkeep is fantastic. The monks have to be fed, and so on.

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

I first went into samadhi when I was 19. I was meditating in the mountains and had been meditating on a daily basis for several years. Suddenly there was no time or space or life or death or myself or the Universe. I was absorbed in light.

If you go too far, it'll blow your mind. I mean it's strong out there. If you go out too far beyond the bounds of attention, there are things in the universe, in the universes of mind, in the inner worlds, it's best sometimes not to deal with unless you're very, very far along.

Through incarnations, some beings do go down. That is to say, they forget. The soul falls into an eclipse of itself and there is a downward progression for a time.

Any area you slough off in your life will reflect in your meditation. Be happy when you could be depressed. Push jealous, fear, and anger out of your mind. Don't feel sorry for yourself.