The problem is that we're all full of desire; it is the very hallmark of our emotional existence, and it can lead to our downfall - and to the downfall of others. [...] Once upon a time, Aristophanes...
The only unforgivable crime is to cut short the experiment of one’s own life before its natural end. To do so is a weakness and a pity— for the experiment of life will cut itself off soon enough, in a...
The only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of the heart.
The older I get, the less impressed I become with originality. These days, I'm far more moved by authenticity.
The more lightly you can pass that time, the brighter your existence becomes.
The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement.
The Buddha taught that all human suffering is rooted in desire. Don't we all know this to be true? Any of us who have ever desired something and then didn't get it (or, worse, got it and subsequently...
Sometimes you will need to leap from one end of this paradoxical spectrum to the other in a matter of minutes, and then back again. As I write this book, for instance, I approach each sentence as if t...
Sometimes life is too hard to be alone, and sometimes life is too good to be alone.
Some people like to argue about God. Not necessary, he said. I have good idea, for if you meet some person from different religion and he want to make argument about God. My idea is, you listen to eve...
So I stood up and did a handstand on my Guru's roof, to celebrate the notion of liberation. I felt the dusty tiles under my hands. I felt my own strength and balance. I felt the easy night breeze on t...
She had dearly missed the northern world during her time in the South Seas. She had missed the change of seasons, and the hard, bright, bracing sunlight of winter. She had missed the rigors of a cold...
She felt simultaneously relieved and burdened: relieved of all her old questions; burdened by the answers.
Richard didn't even have time to ask if I thought I'd ever amount to anything in this life before I looked him eye to eye and said, I already have, mister.
Read your Bible, child; this world is not a paradise but a vale of tears.
Pure creativity is something better than a necessity; it’s a gift. It’s the frosting. Our creativity is a wild and unexpected bonus from the universe. It’s as if all our gods and angels gathered toget...
Prayer is a relationship; half the job is mine.
Pilgrims WHEN MY OLD MAN said he’d hired her, I said, A girl? A girl, when it wasn’t that long ago women couldn’t work on this ranch even as cooks, because the wranglers got shot over them too much. T...
Painting working!
Opening up space for ourselves is a life-affirming act, a sacred act. I believe we must all be allowed to affirm and open our own lives, in celebration of the miracle of our existence. I do not believ...