Death is only a summer vacation for us. We don't really change or lose what we have learned or who we have been when we die, because we are our karma.

This world we exist in is populated by people who have really shut themselves off from life.

The work that most people do in the world tends to deaden them, deadens their mind, uses up their energy and they get a paycheck and old age and not much energy. You get the check and they get your energy. That energy is translated into corporate dollars.

The ashram is where everyone lives in the same building or on the same grounds. You feel that it's selfish for you to devote your life to one person. You don't just love the one, you love the many also.

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

That's what self-discovery seems to mean to most people. You're going to beat yourself up. You're going to reduce what you're supposed to be and do to a set of rules so you can defy them, or so you can perform them and feel smug.

If you think you are a vile slime, that means that you aspire to something higher...It's because you have a sense of perfection, and you obviously want that, that you find something wrong.