The training was rigorous, hundreds and thousands of hours of meditation, self-giving. But it was easy. I loved it. I would merge again and again with the superconscious in meditation.

It's very funny. People do not want to achieve liberation or be happy. This is the basic guideline they teach you in Spiritual Training School.

With the frenzied pace in our own country, with the degenerating school system, with a crime rate that rises 30% a year, and with politicians that seem more interested in posturing than in governing, it has become more difficult, or should I say challenging, to achieve that inner symbiosis with life.

In Zen we do everything perfectly. We feel that our outer actions are a reflection of our inner state. We call it mindfulness.

The trick is simply to avoid jerks. There are lots of them out there. Most people are unhappy.

The reason a person is in a particular state of mind is primarily because of attraction and aversion. Attraction and aversion cause us to format a mental or intellectual program.

Success and failure are terrible traps.