If you could stand back far enough and watch the whole process you'd see you are a totally determined being.

A Tibetan Lama said to me, "The best place to stand, Ram Dass, is halfway between hope and hopelessness." So I can write a scenario for the 21st century in either direction. One is that it all goes to hell and that it's truly the dark age.

The heart surrenders everything to the moment. The mind judges and holds back.

As we grow in our consciousness.. there will be more compassion and more love. And then... the barriers between people.. between religions.. and between nations will begin to fall.

The point isn't to deny our Egos, but to extricate ourselves from our exclusive preoccupation with them.

My life is a creative act--like a painting, or a concerto.

The art of life is to stay wide open and be vulnerable, yet at the same time to sit with the mystery and the awe and with the unbearable pain - to just be with it all.