Happiness is not freedom. You may become happy tomorrow; but I assure you, your happiness will be smashed by the pains of your body as you age, by the all-encompassing death that swallows up everything and everyone in this world.

No lifetime is a loss if you've leaned something, because that learning stays with you. There is no such thing as a wasted life, if you have learned.

Nirvikalpa samadhi is another matter. I don't feel that's really up to us. That happens at a certain time when our being has gone through countless changes and refinements.

Examine everything that you've been taught, not simply what you've been taught in school, but the images that have been held up to you since the time of your birth.

I recommend, for many people, the study of computer science. Our natural resource in America is the mind. The mindset in computer science is very similar to the mindset in Zen.

As a student of enlightenment your attitude should not be to become enlightened. It should be to learn.

A lot of people profess to have power and it is very minor astral power. They do get power over you, not because they have any intrinsic power, but because your fear immobilizes you and makes you do a bad job.