“Any spirituality that can’t pass inspection with science will not make it past the modern and post-modern tests for truth, and any science that doesn’t include some component of testable spirituality will never find an answer to the ultimate questions of human existence.”

"A major tier transformation: from a 1st tier of stages built by deficiency needs, scarcity motivations, absolutistic thinking, noninclusive and exclusionary practices, and hence human conflict and suffering to a 2nd tier of stages build by inclusiveness, embrace, abundance motivation, being values and caring kindness in its actions, tender mercies in its thoughts, exquisite patterns that connect in its ideas, and whole upon wholes upon wholes in its awareness."

"To be a participant in a complex system is to desire to be both lost and found in the interrelationships between people, nature, and ideas.”

“Understand ecology as a living pattern of relationships, a co - evolving set of relational dynamics between parts of a system.”

“To gasp at the unspeakable beauty of this process is perhaps the only appropriate response. The nexus of relationships that is providing knowing to a single minute gesture is ecological. It is intricate and intimate. It is the totality of patterns and relationships that any organism lives within.”

"When one can serenely view the world without stumbling over it or being caught by it, then there is neither good nor bad, neither gain or loss, neither pleasure nor pain. One merely reflects the appearance of things of the world just as a mirror reflects objects."

"Once a student came to me and asked "What is the meaning of life?" when I replied "to play" he was disappointed. "Just to play is that it?" he asked and went away. Once you have reached the last station at the end of line there is nothing to seek, all one does is play. Here to have things is fine, not to have things is also fine. To live is fine, to die is also fine. To be happy is fine, to be sad also fine. If it rains that's fine, if it shines that too is fine. Everyday is good, everyday is good." - Yamada Mumom

"How much of humanity's depredation, violence, and ruination arises from the cosmic alienation implicit in a mechanical universe?"

“Anxiety and boredom flow from a common confluence of sources. Technology has separated us from each other, from nature, and from ourselves, inflicting the interior wound of separation. Second, the definition of the self as a discrete entity, fundamentally separate from other being and the environment, contributes to our psychological loneliness. Third, the competitive view of the world that is inseparable from the edifice of science weaves anxiety into the very fabric of life, which becomes a competition for survival. Finally, the belief that the universe at its most fundamental level consists of atomic particles interacting according to impersonal forces creates an existential insecurity, an alienation from the living, enspirited world and selves we intuitively sense.”

“A man grounded in the unfathomable mystery of life, in touch with death’s vastness—rather than merely flitting from one busy surface activity to another—is sourced in his depth.”

“If she doesn’t want him, he should immediately cease pursuing her and deal with his pain by himself.”

“Don’t tell her what to do, but do it with her, with your body. If she is tense and closed down, lift her arms up above her head and kiss her heart. Don’t just tell her to open up. Actually open her up”

“Feel the need that drives you, for most of your adult life, to yearn for a woman, in flesh or in fantasy. And discover what it is you really want. You’ve had tit. You’ve had pussy. You’ve had nurturing. You’ve had wild passion. And none of it lasted. It wasn’t even that good as long as it did last. Your need is far deeper than any woman can provide. So what is it? Your ultimate desire is for the union of consciousness”

“We rely on the disobedient few for innovation, but today, innovation is our only option.”

“The relentless act of invention and innovation and initiative is the best marketing asset.”

“The challenge, it turns out, isn’t in perfecting your ability to know when to start and when to stand by. The challenge is getting into the habit of starting.”

“there is an intimate connection between understanding how humans grow and evolve—intellectually, cognitively and emotionally—and how good or bad society is going to be. Hence, it should—or must—become a top political priority to support the psychological development of all citizens.”

“Metamodern politics aims to make everyone secure at the deepest psychological level, so that we can live authentically; a byproduct of which is a sense of meaning in life and lasting happiness; a byproduct of which is kindness and an increased ability to cooperate with others; a byproduct of which is deeper freedom and better concrete results in the lives of everyone; a byproduct of which is a society less likely to collapse into a heap of atrocities.”

What if we practiced dying to our stories, our pain, and our pleasure, dying to our rightness, to our wrongness, dying every moment and living into the Deep Now? It’s a radical practice. Psychedelics, meditation, breath work, sexuality, martial arts, and extreme sports—all can become death practices. So practice resurrection. Die to all of it. And see who we are on the other side.

“That changes everything. If we hope to democratize Nirvana, we can’t rely on hand-me-down descriptions; we have to be able to go and see for ourselves. Reading inspirational quotes or gazing longingly at images from the Hubble telescope isn’t going to cut it. We need the launch codes for actual liftoff. Crucially, that experience of gnostic death/rebirth initiation is content neutral. What you glimpse or understand in that rarefied state is yours and yours alone. The psychological narrative that you choose to run could be agnostic as you mull the infinite wonders of consciousness. It could be theistic, as you commune with the gods and angels of your pantheon. It could be aesthetic as you marvel at the fractal symmetries of your mind’s eye. There’s room for all of it on Team Omega. Believe what you want to believe. Just never lose the Faith.”

“It’s usually not that a parent did something evidently appalling; the things that went wrong could quite fairly be seen as rather ordinary and not very dramatic: a few rows, a despair in our father, the feeling that our mother took our school results a bit too seriously…”

“The parent fails to keep in mind the complexity of the inner world of the child, and children are very poorly equipped to explain the nuances of their emotions.”

“If a parent is grumpy, the child sees the sullen face, hears the curt answer or a raised voice and assumes that they themselves must be the cause. It’s impossible for the child to imagine that the parent might be beset by a feeling that they didn’t know where their career was going, that they were under too much pressure at work or that they would never have a happy love life.”

We are equally not encouraged to note the way in which contentment with modest achievement can be a sign that things have gone very well for someone emotionally. It is evidence of health to have no particular wish to be famous and not to mind too much if one does not have a fortune; to be able to have a so-called ordinary life, to place friendship and love at the centre of things.