Of all the self-fulfilling prophecies in our culture, the assumption that aging means decline and poor health is probably the deadliest.

When one begins the transformative process, death and birth are imminent: the death of custom as authority, the birth of the self.

Many artists have said that when life itself becomes fully conscious, art as we know it will vanish.

Uncertainty is the necessary companion of all explorers.

Those who have most at stake in the old culture, or are most rigid in their beliefs, try to summon people back to the old ideas.'

New perspectives give birth to new historic ages. Humankind has had many dramatic revolutions of understanding - great uses of fire and the wheel, language and writing. We found that the earth only seems flat, the sun only seems to circle the earth, matter only seems solid.

Mystical experiences nearly always lead one to a belief that some aspect of consciousness is imperishable. In a Buddhist metaphor the consciousness of the individual is like a flame that burns through the night. It is not the same flame over time, yet neither is it another flame.