We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.

What we know about God is important, but what we do with what we know about God is even more important.

Famine, poverty, abuse, you can't keep that all blocked out. If you let those things teach you, influence you, change you, those are the events that transition you without you even knowing it to become more compassionate.

Jesus is never upset at sinners; he is only upset with people who do not think they are sinners.

The most courageous thing we will ever do is to bear humbly the mystery of our own reality.

Who is telling us about the false self today? Who is even equipped tell us? Many clergy have not figured this out for themselves, since even ministry can be a career decision or an attraction to "religion" more than the result of an encounter with God or themselves. Formal religious status can maintain the false self rather effectively, especially if there are a lot of social payoffs like special respect, titles, salaries, a good self image, or nice costumes. It is no accident that the religious "Pharisees" became the symbolic bad guys in the Jesus story.

I decided years ago that if I'm going to keep teaching contemplation, then the last years of my life should be contemplative.