Why should the peculiarities of human consciousness be the narrow standard by which other creatures are judged?

O, ah! The awareness of emptiness brings forth a heart of compassion!

The lessons we learn from the wild become the etiquette of freedom.

In the belly of the furnace of creativity is a sexual fire; the flames twine about each other in fear and delight. The same sort of coiling, at a cooler, slower pace, is what the life of this planet looks like. The enormous spirals of typhoons, the twists and turns of mountain ranges and gorges, the waves and the deep ocean currents - a dragonlike writhing.

What is any religion? A little ritual, a little superstition, and some magic. It's not a strictly spiritual affair; it has psychological roles to fulfill. You might not want it to be a religion based on your own experience but that's like wanting to clean up your dreams

The other side of the "sacred" is the sight of your beloved in the underworld, dripping with maggots.

In the 40,000 year time scale we're all the same people. We're all equally primitive, give or take two or three thousand years here or a hundred years there.