9 Quotes by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Do not exalt any path above god. There are many paths that lead to god. So people are capable of finding and following the ways that suit them, provided they do not stand still.

God is always present. The question is, how present are we?

Don’t regard yourselves as the final recipients of [...] music [...]. Instead, offer your ears and heart to heaven. Let your experience of [...] music go up to God.

Ultimately, our questions must emerge not from mental categories, but from deep within the heart. They must rise to the surface of our beings as we sit in silence, so that they are not just the old questions which we raise whenever we have nothing else to talk about or just for the sake of argument. They need to be the questions which make a difference in our lives.

Find your major flaw. There lies your glory.

The mind is like tofu. By itself, it has no taste. Everything depends on the flavor of the marinade it steeps in.

Dialogue does not happen when we are adversaries.

When God saw that people, instead of turning to God, were turning to the medicine cabinet, God made himself available in the medicine cabinet.

Indeed, religions might be seen as elaborate, multilayered metaphors, with layers upon layers of submetaphors, constructions that point beyond themselves toward the primary experience of ultimate reality but do not capture it.