At every moment, you have the opportunity to crap out. The world will always tell you to play it safe and just be dead.

Something in you wants to go beyond, wants to be free from this endless round of perception. Enlightenment is that.

Your state of mind dominates your awareness to such an extent that you can't conceive of any other state of mind other than the state of mind that you're in.

The word "Guru", as it is used in the contemporary American scene, is someone who takes all your money and tells you what to do with your life. You assume no responsibility. A lot of people want that free ride.

By perfecting the practices of zazen and mindfulness, by learning patience and love and by realizing the essential emptiness of all phenomena, you will discover nirvana.

I learned from my own teachers, a long time ago in another universe, the quality of quiet fortitude that is renewed by a person's love of light.

They say Casanova made love to over 10,000 women. Do you think it changed him? It probably aged him a little bit. But I doubt that it changed him. If it had changed him, he would have stopped somewhere along the line and done something a little different.