Balance is to choose happiness, to feel that the purpose of life is to love, not necessarily to be loved, to be happy, to be conscious, to be aware, to be fulfilled.

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.

Unfortunately we've seen meditation insulted in a sense with the image of ritual. You have to dress a certain way, follow a certain type of lifestyle, all that sort of thing, very culty - and that, of course, has nothing to do with the practice whatsoever.

The integrity of the subtle body is totally important. As the subtle body wears, we get sick. That is why, eventually, the body dies - it's because something happens to the subtle body.

Consider that we live in a world predicated upon fear. The underlying assumption is that human beings are innately evil and must be groomed and controlled. That is the dichotomy that is set up within the human mind, good and evil.

Sometimes in life, we have to go backward a certain distance in order to go forwards. If we have conflicts within ourselves that we have not resolved, then we will find ourselves living inside of these conflicts, not in the realms of light.

You must be accommodating with your teacher. You must have a sense of humor about your teacher and the impossible things they ask you to do.