The person who's in the Zen monastery, who's doing a kind of poor job at meditating and a half-ass job cleaning the gardens is not doing very good yoga.

When you chant "Aum" or any mantra, do so softly and gently. Extend the sound. Focus your awareness on the sound of the mantra and become absorbed in it.

People enter states of consciousness where they think they've become enlightened. The best thing to do, if you've gone through one of those phases, is to be sensible, laugh at yourself for how foolish you were.

The important thing to remember is to follow the path of light. As the fictional character Yoda, from Star Wars, correctly pointed out, once you start down the dark path to power, it's very difficult to leave that path.

When there is no thought in the mind, no thought of thought, when the mind is quiet but fully alert, we experience a little bit of enlightenment.

Let's say you dissolve and become infinite light. There is this sense of being light even though the mind is not thinking it, one feels it, which indicates that one is still there - at least half of one.

Only when you are by yourself can you realize how wonderful you are.