Although I was raised in a profoundly secular home, I had a belief, an awareness of God, from as far back as I can remember.

What people get admired and appreciated for in community are their soft skills: their sense of humor and timing, their ability to listen, their courage and honesty, their capacity for empathy.

The feeling of being valuable - 'I am a valuable person'- is essential to mental health and is a cornerstone of self-discipline.

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.

It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually.

A discussion becomes destructive when it begins to generate more heat than light.

The giving up of personality traits, well-established patterns of behavior, ideologies, and even whole life styles...these are major forms of giving up that are required if one is to travel very far on the journey of life.