“All religions are like different cars all moving in the same direction. People who don’t see it have no light in their hearts.”

Mental activity is like a deadly poisonous cobra. If we don’t interfere with a cobra, how poisonous it may be, it simply goes its own away.

If you see certainty in that which is uncertain, you are bound to suffer

At some point your heart will tell itself what to do.

To the birds, the fruit may be sweet or sour or whatever. The birds say sweet or they say sour, but from the tree’s point of view, this is just the chattering of birds.

Some people are afraid of generosity. They feel they will be taken advantage of or oppressed.

All that I have said up to now has merely been words. When people come to see me, I have to say something. But it is best not to speak about these matters too much.

The teachings say that wherever a problem arises it must be settled right there. Where suffering lies is right where non-suffering will arise, it ceases at the place where it arises.

If you want a chicken to be a duck, and a duck to be a chicken, you will suffer.

All kinds of wonderful, rare animals will come to drink at the pool, and you will clearly see the nature of all things.

To practice Dhamma means to observe and examine oneself.

Remember you dont meditate to get anything, but to get rid of things.

Do not be a bodhisattva, do not be an arahant, do not be anything at all. If you are a bodhisattva, you will suffer, if you are an arahant, you will suffer, if you are anything at all, you will suffer.

Read yourself, not books. Truth isn’t outside, that’s only memory, not wisdom. Memory without wisdom is like an empty thermos bottle – if you don’t fill it, it’s useless.

Meditation is like a single log of wood. Insight and investigation are one end of the log; calm and concentration are the other end. If you lift up the whole log, both sides come up at once. Which is concentration and which is insight? Just this mind.

Things are simply the way they are. They don’t give us suffering. Like a thorn: Does a sharp thorn give us suffering?

Where does rain come from? It comes from all the dirty water that evaporates from the earth, like urine and the water you throw out after washing your feet.

Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were.

If you look at a lot of animated movies, they don’t pay attention to how things move through space.

The moment you get emotionally involved with your goal, it instantly and automatically begins to move into physical form.

Music is real; it’s something you can touch and feel. It moves you – the bass literally shakes you and rocks you from the inside.

I studied that first Karpov-Kasparov match for a year and a half before I cracked it, what they were doing, and discovered that it was all prearranged move-by-move. There’s no doubt of it in my mind.

Persistence is a unique mental strength; a strength that is essential to combat the fierce power of the repeated rejections and numerous other obstacles that sit in waiting and are all part of winning in a fast-moving, ever-changing world.

I loved my 17 years with R.E.M., but I’m ready to reflect, assess and move on to a different phase of my life.

Life moves all too fast. When you feel weak, discouraged, depressed, or afraid, open the Book of Mormon and read.