“Nobody can say anything about you. Whatsoever people say is about themselves. But you become very shaky, because you are still clinging to a false center. That false center depends on others, so you are always looking to what people are saying about you. And you are always following other people, you are always trying to satisfy them. You are always trying to be respectable, you are always trying to decorate your ego. This is suicidal. Rather than being disturbed by what others say, you should start looking inside yourself… Whenever you are self-conscious you are simply showing that you are not conscious of the self at all. You don’t know who you are. If you had known, then there would have been no problem—then you are not seeking opinions. Then you are not worried what others say about you—it is irrelevant! When you are self-conscious you are in trouble. When you are self-conscious you are really showing symptoms that you don’t know who you are. Your very self-consciousness indicates that you have not come home yet.”

“There can be no rebirth without a dark night of the soul, a total annihilation of all that you believed in and thought that you were.”

“Everyday life surrounds us in a swirling chaos, and it’s easy to fall into the grip of our ego’s fears and confusion. Remind yourself each day of your intentions and spiritual purpose. Meditate, find your centre, look closely at yourself, and don’t let go of your intention until it feels centred inside yourself.”

“To change one’s life: Start immediately Do it flamboyantly, No exceptions”

“Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I have taken for granted.”

“Find out what it means to die—not physically, that’s inevitable—but to die to everything that is known, to die to your family, to your attachments, to all the things that you have accumulated, the known, the known pleasures, the known fears. Die to that every minute and you will see what it means to die so that the mind is made fresh, young, and therefore innocent, so that there is incarnation not in a next life, but the next day.”

“We only see the violence of change…Are we aware of how much violence goes on just to keep things the way they are?”

“There are days that walk through me and I cannot hold them.”