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He has a deep fear of his own ignorance. He’s afraid that he will never understand the teachings. He’s afraid that he is just another stupid person who can’t get it.

People come to the teacher for comfort. To be told, “It’s okay. You’re fine as you are and everything will be all right in the end. Just keep doing what you’re doing and it will all work out just fine. Life is really a dream, you know, so just relax and enjoy it."

The ego loves teachers because they are a tremendous source of reassurance that it's okay to do whatever the hell you want as long as you have some sort of spiritual excuse for not taking personal responsibility for your actions and their consequences

I’m not saying the teaching isn’t valuable; I’m saying it is nothing special. It’s just as big a mystery to me as it is to you. I am just as much of an ignorant fool as you are, and just as worthy of respect.

So long as a student believes that his teacher has special powers or unique qualities, there is no room for him to wake up. He will never see that it is all happening in his own mind and nowhere else.

His great insight is his downfall bc in his zeal to break through he has fractured his whole being into fragments of an enlightened person who can never be put back together again.

He will forever see himself as far ahead of everyone else, which means that he will forever see himself as falling behind everyone else. And this sense of falling behind will always inspire him to push harder, which means that he will always be on the verge of collapse.

One cannot measure enlightenment by one’s ability to talk about enlightenment or one’s eagerness to talk about it or even one’s eloquence in talking about it: one can only measure enlightenment by the degree of freedom from self interest it brings.