If you decide to go on a Buddhist path, you have to be careful if you start mixing a lot of different traditions you are not totally familiar with - mixing this kind of meditation with that kind of practice or this kind of visualization with that kind of mantra. Then you really are concocting your own thing, and you have no idea what is going to happen.

Sometimes people feel disappointed when they hear about practicing compassion: "You mean I have to be nice?" It's kind of a letdown. We often overlook compassion, seeing it as merely a pit stop on the way to more advanced practices. We want something more; we don't even know what. But that's just a trick of our mind. One of the greatest teachings is to practice compassion.

Like gravity, karma is so basic we often don't even notice it.

People sometimes don't like organized situations. Sometimes people need to be left alone more. Sometimes people need environmental support.

It's one thing to have the attitude of enlightenment and another thing to act in an enlightened way, which is conduct or activity.

The first thing you have to do is acknowledge the basic and fundamental goodness of all beings. If you don't, then you are going to have conflict. That's at the core of Shambhala.

Many people think spirituality has nothing to do with success or accomplishing - that it's something you do with removal, with leaving the world.