Practice has been described by a Tibetan teacher as the wearing out of a old pair of shoes. Wearing the soles thin. Wearing through ego and delusion. You may approach Zen thinking that you are going to become enlightened, become a great teacher and have fantastic powers that people will respect. Doing the practice, you come to realize that you don’t give a damn whether people respect you or not. You really don’t want to be a great teacher. What you want is to be helpful. To be of assistance – a benevolent entity.
- Kobutsu Malone, The Engaged Zen Foundation (Heron Dance Interview, Issue 13, February 1997)

The more one forgets himself –- by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love –- the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.  What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it.  In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side effect of self-transcendence.
            - Victor Frankl, Man's Search For Meaning