Of course, there is a dark side to us.  We kill wantonly, don't we?  We burn people in the name of God.  We destroy ourselves, we obliterate life on this planet; we destroy the earth.  And then we dress in robes and the Lord speaks directly to us.  And what does the Lord tell us?  We shoul be good boys or he is going to punish us.  The Lord has been threatening us for centuries and it doesn't make any difference, not because we are bad, but because we are dumb.  Man has a dark side, yes, and it's called stupidity.

All paths lead nowhere, so it is important to choose a path that has heart.

Religion is for people who don't want to go to hell -
Spirit is for those who've been there.

"Passivity is a violation of our nature, because, in essence, we are all formidable combatants.  Every human being is, by right, a soldier who has achieved his place in the world in a battle of life & death.
Look at it this way: At least once, as sperms, each one of us fought a battle for life - a unique struggle against millions of other competitors - and we won!  And now the battle continues, since we are trapped by the forces of this world.  One part of us is fighting to disintegrate & die, while another tries to maintain life & awareness at any cost.  There is no peace!  A warrior realizes this, and uses it to his advantage.  His goal continues to be that which inspired the spark of life that created him:  Access to a new level of awareness."

The only Zen you'll find on mountain tops
is the Zen you bring up there with you.

A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use.

The most effective way to live is as a warrior. A warrior may worry and think before making any decision, but once he makes it, he goes his way, free from worries or thoughts; there will be a million other decisions still awaiting him. That's the warrior's way.

A warrior must cultivate the feeling that he has everything needed for the extravagant journey that is his life. What counts for a warrior is being alive. Life in itself is sufficient, self-explanatory and complete. Therefore, one may say without being presumptuous that the experience of experiences is being alive.

If a warrior wants to pay back for all the favors he has received, and he has no one in particular to address his payment to, he can address it to the spirit of man,  That's always a very small account, and whatever one puts in it is more than enough.

The spirit listens only when the speaker speaks in gestures.  And gestures do not mean signs or body movements, but acts of true abandon, acts of largesse, of humor.  As a gesture to the spirit, warriors bring out the best of themselves and silently offer it to the abstract