As Buddha points out, you should not rely on the opinions of others for validation of your internal progression.

What we're seeking to do is internalize perception. Perception is very much involved with the senses and the mental processes and the emotional processes.

When you go into the planes of light, all of the incorrect ways of seeing and understanding life that you pick up are washed away.

Sight is not absolutely essential in this process, but we use sight because it is the dominant sense. It's easiest to interrupt the flow of thought in sense perception and move the mind beyond sense perception with sight.

Try to feel that you are beyond time and space when you practice meditation. Go beyond this world, beyond time, beyond life, not a feeling of being spaced out, but in touch with the moment and with eternity.

A Zen master is someone whose life is one with enlightenment and self-discovery. They can never be separated from that. They've been essentially mastered by Zen.

Happiness is something that you don't postpone. If you are postponing happiness - it is something you will probably never experience much of.