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> The mind is an instrument for understanding, not for explaining why we suffer > You use your intelligence to gather information and then you use your ignorance as an excuse for inaction.

> If you want to know what your prayer is like, see how you live. If you want to know what your meditation is like, look at what happens when you are asleep. And if you want to know what your relationship with God is like… well, just look at your relationships with people.

> You are often surprised that the same thing happens to you which you had done to others. But your surprise is not a sign of compassion; it is a sign of pride.

> I’ve heard about people who think they are spiritual but are really just escapists; they don’t want to deal with the real problems in life. If you are willing to be totally responsible for yourself and your world, then you are truly spiritual. Otherwise, it’s just escapism.

> One of the things about enlightenment is that it puts you in a prison. That’s why I say, “Go to the top and then come down, because only from the top can you see far enough to come down.

> You don’t have control over life because you are life itself. So what is there to control? What alternative do you want to give it? To be dead? How does that work for you?

> When we think of our own death, we tend to think either obsessively about it, endlessly worrying about it; or else we just refuse to think about it at all – which is another way of doing nothing but waiting for death to catch us unawares.

> But you want to know how you can tell the difference between Love and sentimentality? Sentimentality is about how we would like things to be. Love is about how things really are.

> but watch closely what happens when someone does speak up against group-think – they are immediately put down socially.. or quickly lose their popularity …or get demoted …or are given no work next day…by those who control promotions etc.

> Do not identify with emptiness. Emptiness is only a space, like a vacuum which needs to be filled up again. Then nothing else matters more than filling the vacuum.