Karmic progression implies that we are kind of alliterating steps to life. There's alliteration, a kind of rhythmic structure. Once we're in time and space, the variable structures are somewhat limited.

Imagine wave after wave of joy passing through your whole body. As each wave passes through your body, feel that all worries, tensions, anxieties and problems are being washed away.

Sometimes people start to meditate and they get a headache. It's because they're trying too hard. You're pulling in too much energy.

At the moment of birth you are the product of everything that has occurred in every lifetime you've had.

Put on the music, and listen. Zazen means to sit, to listen. You're listening to enlightenment, to the universes, to the planes of mind.

Pass the popcorn, please. Life is a film, theatre, a theatre of the soul. We play different roles on different stages. At death, we walk offstage. At birth, we walk onstage.

The problem with monasteries, ashrams, convents is these institutions become extremely political. In other words, they're really small societies, and much of what you hope to avoid in societies you find there.