After I Left The Convent, For 15

The Constant Reprimands Made Me Hyperconscious Of My Own Performance, And So Instead Of Getting Rid Of Self, I Had Become Embedded In The Egoism I Was Supposed To Transcend. Now I Was Beginning To Understand That A Silence That Is Not Clamorous With Vexation And Worried Self-regard Can Become Part Of The Texture Of Your Mind, Can Seep Into You, Moment By Moment, And Gradually Change You.

Saint Augustine ... Insisted That Scripture Taught Nothing But Charity. Whatever The Biblical Author May Have Intended, Any Passage That Seemed To Preach Hatred And Was Not Conducive To Love Must Be Interpreted Allegorically And Made To Speak Of Charity.

Compassion Is Not A Popular Virtue. Very Often When I Talk To Religious People, And Mention How Important It Is That Compassion Is The Key, That It's The Sine-qua-non Of Religion, People Look Kind Of Balked, And Stubborn Sometimes, As Much To Say, What's The Point Of Having Religion If You Can't Disapprove Of Other People?

There Must Be No Coercion In Matters Of Faith!

Jewish, Christian, And Muslim Theologians Have Insisted For Centuries That God Does Not Exist And That There Is 'nothing' Out There; In Making These Assertions, Their Aim Was Not To Deny The Reality Of God But To Safeguard God's Transcendence.