The central premise of this book is that the Western psychological notion of what it means to have a self is flawed.

Depressed people think they know themselves, but maybe they only know depression.

Uncovering your real desires can be terrifying. It can also set you spectacularly free.

Meditation is not a means of forgetting the ego; it is a method of using the ego to observe and tame its own manifestations.

Desire is a teacher: When we immerse ourselves in it without guilt, shame, or clinging, it can show us something special about our own minds that allows us to embrace life fully.

Trauma never goes away completely, it changes perhaps, softens some with time, but never completely goes away.

We are what we think, having become what we thought.

To be free, to come to terms with our lives, we have to have a direct experience of ourselves as we really are, warts and all.

We are looking for a way to feel more real, but we do not realize that to feel more real we have to push ourselves further into the unknown.

Anger is sign that something needs to change.

The picture we present to ourselves of who we think we ought to be obscures who we really are.

Victory stands on the back of sacrifice

... life wasn't full of problems, it was rich with decisions.

Lost is a lovely place to find yourself.

It is quite common for people to focus on the problem rather than the solutions.

When one begins to turn in bed, it is time to get up.

Psychic development makes you strong. It develops a common sense attitude in which you don't expose yourself to forces, people and situations that would drain you.

The bad boy: always more fun.

If Washington is a two-party town, why can't Hollywood be one too?

I feel less alone when I read the books of Ratzinger.