Chanting a mantra at the beginning of your meditation helps you clear the mind and takes you deep within the self. Chanting a mantra at the end of meditation helps you seal the meditation. It helps you bring the awareness of the meditation down into your daily life.

What is perfect? From the Zen mind, perfection is not being there.

I was attracted to poetry, which is perhaps the purest of the art forms, where love is the medium of exchange and the nobility of love is considered. It's a land of higher ideals.

Gods and goddesses are not what people think they are. Their names are terms with which we try to convey a certain experience, a state of consciousness.

I can throw a great party, but I don't know how to go to one. I can throw a party because when you throw a party you just work all the time. But I could never go to a party because I wouldn't know what to do ... I'd immediately find the kitchen and start to serve food.

I personally have fun with enlightenment, the study and the teaching of it. I get a kick out of doing it different ways because I don't think there is a "way".

There have been times when I've made special arrangements to meet people in music, film, business or politics, and I'll continue to do so if the people are sincere.