Today we often think that before we start living a religious life we have first to accept the creedal doctrines and that before one can have any comprehension of the loyalty and trust of faith, one must first force one's mind to accept a host of incomprehensible doctrines. But this is to put the cart before the horse.

There are some forms of religion that are bad, just as there's bad cooking or bad art or bad sex, you have bad religion too.

You put yourself in the receptive frame of mind with which we approach music or poetry, which you can measure the difference on a neurological scanner.

Alas, all traditions lose their primal purity and we all fail our founders.

The great task of our time is to build a global society, where people can live together in peace

In the holy city of Mecca, violence of any kind was forbidden. From the moment they left home, pilgrims were not permitted to carry weapons, to swat an insect or speak an angry word, a discipline that introduced them to a new way of living.

We are most creative and sense other possibilities that transcend our ordinary experience when we leave ourselves behind.