In my very early childhood, when I was only 3 or 4 or 5, I would enter for many hours into meditative states in which the world would become light and energy and I would transcend the boundaries of the senses.

Deluded beings think that if they get in a battle with a Zen Master or with a Don Juan, that it's going enhance their life if they win. You can never take power from someone else any more than you can take sunlight.

We remember a few people who've been enlightened. We build churches and edifices in their name. But few people, if any, feel that they could ever be like that; and if that's how they feel - that's how it will be.

The essence of Taoism is really expressed by these few words. Taoism is the way of the child, the way of the fool, the way of someone who doesn't need to be noticed.

Buddhism is a practice in which we learn to avoid injuring others, and ourselves. It's a practice in which we learn to respond to beauty, and to respond to difficult circumstances with patience, with a sense of calm, with clarity.

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

You know, these non-physical beings, it's very hard to tell what they're up to. You can't see them. How can you rely on them? It's chancy.