Happiness is just being you, where you are right now. Allow yourself to be you. Shut off all the silly thoughts and desires and crazy emotions

If you ever care about things, that means they have power over you.

The problem with monasteries, ashrams, convents is these institutions become extremely political. In other words, they're really small societies, and much of what you hope to avoid in societies you find there.

Try to read books about meditation, but not so many different viewpoints that they get confusing. There is no best way. It's just what works for you at the time.

Many practitioners think there is some giant balance scale, where someone is keeping track, like Santa Claus, and that will determine your allotment of presents. That's a very exoteric understanding of reincarnation.

Buddhism doesn't come from anybody. It exists by itself.

It is more important to repeat a mantra several times with total absorption than to parrot it for hours on end.