But for the first time, I had a religious identity. I had come home. And so I called myself a Zen Buddhist at the age of 18.

When we cling, often forever, to our old patterns of thinking and behaving, we fall to negotiate any crisis, to truly grow up, and to experience the joyful sense of rebirth that accompanies the successful transition into greater maturity.

The principal form that the work of love takes is attention. When we love another person we give him or her our attention; we attend to that person's growth.

Love is the free exercise of choice. Two people love each other only when they are quite capable of living without each other but choose to live with each other.

The best decision-makers are those who are willing to suffer the most over their decisions but still retain their ability to be decisive.

Not only do self-love and love of others go hand in hand but ultimately they are indistinguishable.

Consciousness and Healing To proceed very far through the desert, you must be willing to meet existential suffering and work it through. In order to do this, the attitude toward pain has to change. This happens when we accept the fact that everything that happens to us has been designed for our spiritual growth.