We can't exempt ourselves from the same moral calculus that we are willing to apply to others.
A home-made friend wears longer than one you buy in the market.
Practical prayer is harder on the soles of your shoes than on the knees of your trousers.
A hole is nothing at all, but you can break your neck in it.
Happiness is the harvest of a quiet eye.
Patience has tender feet.
Patience is the analogue of God's serenity.
But in the West it is very easy to dissolve the ego. So whenever a Western seeker reaches an understanding that ego is the problem he can easily dissolve it, more easily than any Eastern seeker. This is the paradox - in the West ego is taught, in the East egolessness is taught. But in the West it is easy to dissolve the ego, in the East it is very difficult.
I know of no other way to triumph over sin long-term than to gain a distaste for it because of a superior satisfaction in God.
I realize that there's a thing called the bodhisattva ideal, and it's a very nice pinnacle of attention. It's a very egotistical thought, ultimately.
Anger is a violent emotion, vindictive, and as dangerous to he who is driven by it as to anyone on whom it is turned.