She [me muse] feels most at home in autumn, nonetheless, she is glad of the other seasons and loves them all. Without the others she would be unable to feel most at home in autumn, besides which, she almost feels most at home in all of them.

When we fail to live up to our ideals, for instance, we might begin to wonder who we are - most people are aware of a discrepancy, I think. There are idiosyncrasies and foibles, but we're not sure if these are essential. Some people think they are the most essential things of all.

Non-pantheist models for god seem almost completely untenable to me, though not without interest.

I associate my childhood with two things, mainly: the North Devon countryside and a sense of connection to another world.

The peculiar thing is that, in focusing only on the here and now, Buddhism seems to despise the world.

This strong sense of who I am that I've always had, since I was very young, is what makes me write.

I seemed to recall some words from an old Zen master, something like, "My Zen cuts down mountains." My rejection of Buddhism was a cutting down of mountains; that is precisely how it felt to me.