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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.

We don’t need more teachers, we need more students who have learned how not to be students.

It’s no use trying to teach these men anything. They’ve learned so many things already that it has killed them.

The point isn't to get beyond suffering to some kind of freedom; it's just to recognize that suffering IS freedom, in the same way that pleasure is also freedom and pain is also freedom and joy is also freedom and sadness is also freedom and anger is also freedom and ...

He has no real interest in his own freedom. What he wants is reassurance that he is already free and enlightened and needs only to be validated by others. So he seeks out teachers with whom he can feel comfortable, thinking they will give him the needed assurance

A religion is something you do five times a day; spirituality is about living your life from moment to moment. Religion is ritual; spirituality is reality. As long as I am sitting here talking about awakening we are both asleep in our chairs!