“How could the Buddha have believed that being incarnated as a human being was fortunate? Had he ever been to Georgia?”

“The question, then, was how long could a human being stay awake? Keith Richards could party for three days straight, but I wasn't sure if he counted as a human being.”

“He was the only person I ever met whose soul I could clearly see in his eyes. And I had more faith in him than I've ever had in another human being.”

“The good news is that we are Buddha. The bad news is that all beings are Buddha.The sickness of being human is the sickness of wanting to be unique.”

“God sent Jesus to join the human experience, which means to make a lot of mistakes. Jesus didn't arrive here knowing how to walk. He had fingers and toes, confusion, sexual feelings, crazy human internal processes. He had the same prejudices as the rest of his tribe: he had to learn that the Canaanite woman was a person. He had to suffer the hardships and tedium and setbacks of being a regular person. If he hadn't the incarnation would mean nothing.”

“Today is my grandfather's birthday.""How old is he?""Sixty-three. It's hard to believe he was once a human being.”