Just what should a young man or woman know to be 'in the know'? Is there, in other words, some inside information, some special taboo, some real lowdown on life and existence that most parents and teachers either don't know or won't tell?

A genuine smile distributes the cosmic current, Prana to every body cell.The happy man is less subject to disease, for happiness actually attracts into the body a greater supply of the Universal life energy.

Art when inspired with love leads to higher realms, and that art will open for you the inner life.

The purpose of life is to realize God within ourselves. This can be done even whilst attending to our worldly duties.

Though one should live a hundred years without wisdom and control, yet better, indeed, is a single day's life of one who is wise and meditative.

Enquire: 'Who am I?' and you will find the answer. Look at a tree: from one seed arises a huge tree; from it comes numerous seeds, each one of which in its turn grows into a tree. No two fruits are alike. Yet it is one life that throbs in every particle of the tree. So, it is the same Atman everywhere.

If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you'll spend your life completely wasting your time. You'll be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing thing you don't like doing, which is stupid.

I have frequently seen people become neurotic when they content themselves with inadequate or wrong answers to the questions of life

You don't have to wait for something 'meaningful' to come into your life so that you can finally enjoy what you do. There is more meaning in joy than you will ever need. The 'waiting to start living' syndrome is one of the most common delusions of the unconscious state.

Underneath your physical and psychological form, you are one with Life itself, one with Being.

Life is nothing to be very serious about. Life is a ball in your hands to play with. Don’t hold on to the ball.

Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.

Life is teleology par excellence; it is the intrinsic striving towards a goal, and the living organism is a system of directed aims which seek to fulfill themselves

If you knew the true nature of your existence, you could play the drama of life whichever way you want, to whatever extent you want.

Our own life has to be our message.

Meditation is not an escape. Meditation is the acceptance of life in its totality, with a view to transforming it for the highest manifestation of the divine Truth here on earth.

This is the key to life: the ability to reflect, the ability to know yourself, the ability to pause for a second before reacting automatically. If you can truly know yourself, you will begin the journey of transformation.

Every living being on earth loves life above all else. The smallest insect, whose life lasts only an instant, tries to escape from any danger in order to live a moment longer. And the desire to live is most developed in man.

Life is the coexistence of all opposite values. Joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, up and down, hot and cold, here and there, light and darkness, birth and death. All experience is by contrast, and one would be meaningless without the other.

Suffer what there is to suffer. Enjoy what there is to enjoy. Regard both suffering and joy as facts of life.

It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment’s grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one’s life.

Selfishness keeps man blind through life.

There is only one thing in life which never changes, and it is change.