Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any 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 to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary.

This question is one that only a very old man asks. Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long long paths, but I am not anywhere. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.

Before you embark on any path ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.

I have told you that to choose a path you must be free from fear and ambition. The desire to learn is not ambition. It is our lot as men to want to know.

The path without a heart will turn against men and destroy them. It does not take much to die, and to seek death is to seek nothing.

For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have a heart, on any path that may have a heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length. And there I travel--looking, looking, breathlessly.

Teachings of Don Juan

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The nature of Mind when understood, no human speech can compass or disclose. Enlightenment is nothing to be attained, and one that gains it does not say he knows.

Bodhidharma
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Although a current fad amongst some spiritual intellectuals is an integral approach to spirituality, when you are being open right now, fully relaxing as what is, the body, mind, and emotions themselves seem as if transparent, or merely apparent. To paraphrase Ramana Maharshi, if it's not there when you're dead (or even dead asleep), then it isn't real. Ken(Wilber), of course, knows this—he's written about it. Ken admits that much of his audience isn't ready to handle this depth of truth—that their personal self, their body and mind, are mere appearances—and so Ken, in his wisdom, instead coaxes his readers toward an integral viewpoint, which is healthy. He also knows that all viewpoints—including mine or Ken's—are partial, temporary, and spontaneous displays of love's open play.

So, in this brief appearance, I seem a less balanced person than Ken, and certainly much less wise, but my art is different than his. Balancing greatness and goodness is a virtue for those who want to emulate Ken's art. If you like it balanced, go for it. Thanks to my teachers, I no longer consider balance—or an integral spirituality—a particularly artful virtue. Getting drunk and singing poetry like Rumi, sitting and rotting like Maharshi—spiritual art is like pornography: you may not be able to define it, but you know it when you feel it.

Deida
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The Bodhi is not a tree
The clear mirror is nowhere standing
Fundamentally not one thing exists;
Where then is a grain of dust to cling?

Hui-neng
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I am like a winged creature who is too rarely allowed to use its wings. Ecstasies do not occur often enough.

Anais Nin
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"Do not conquer the world with force,
For force only causes resistance.
Thorns spring up when an army passes.
Years of misery follow a great victory.
Do only what needs to be done.
Without using violence."

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The meaning of a koan is neither the question nor the answer, but the journey between the two. That journey is the creation of the awakened and evolved mind states, with the final realization that one is neither, but is instead the ever present witness of both.
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"You need to understand that when you respond with love and feel your heart
opening in the presence of a guru, you did that - not the guru. Your response
is created by you and in you. If you can feel it in his presence, then it's
possible for you to feel it away from his presence too - and that's why you
don't really need gurus to experience your Oneness."