Quotes from Steve Hagen

If you point out the moon to a cat, she probably won't look at the sky; she'll come up and sniff your finger.

It's called enlightenment. It's nothing more or less than seeing things as they are rather than as we wish or believe them to be.

W]e have endless opportunities to forget the self – in planting a tree for future generations; in creating a poem, a meal, a vessel of clay;

Socrates pointed out that we carry on as though death were the greatest of all calamities—yet, for all we know, it might be the greatest of all blessings.

Good and bad aren't absolutes. They are beliefs, judgements, ideas based on limited knowledge as well as on the inclinations of our minds.

The impossibility of arriving at Truth by giving up your own authority and following the lights of others. Such a path will only lead to an opinion.

Whatever the world dishes up, we take it on--not on our own terms, but on the world's.

Rituals, ceremonies, prayers, and special outfits are inevitable, but they do not—they cannot—express the heart of what the Buddha taught. In fact, all too often, such things get in the way. They veil the simple wisdom of the Buddha's words, and distract us from it.

Each of you be a light unto yourself; betake yourself to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Truth. Look not for refuge to anyone beside yourself.

No words—Buddha's, mine, or anyone else's—can see for you.

The biggest mistake we make in confusing a concept with Reality is in … the separation of self and other.

Belief is at best an educated, informed conjecture about Reality.