I decided to become a surgeon named Bernie who writes books and gives seminars to teach people what he has learned and is still learning about how to deal with life's difficulties.

Physicians need to be good technicians and know how to prescribe, but for healing to occur they also need to incorporate philosophy and spirituality into their treatment. We need to feel as well as think.

The spiritual message is we lose our lives in pleasing others; if you're the good child who pleases Mommy and Daddy but internalizes anger, you're setting yourself up for disease.

A surgeon is surrounded by people who are sick, discouraged, afraid, embittered, dying - but also courageous, loving, wise, compassionate and alive.

It gives me a lot of joy when I wear my design at a show and someone asks me who designed my costume.

That's what Buddhism has been trying to unravel - the mechanism of happiness and suffering. It is a science of the mind.

Happiness is the legal-tender of the soul. Joy is wealth.

I like to see the joy in people's' faces. I like to see when they actually question that I'm not afraid to answer and give them my respect and honesty with what I have to say to them.