The Buddha said that samsara by its nature is painful. He didn't say it was a joyride.

I don't know why I got reborn as a female. Maybe in my past life I had some sympathy or something for women, but I certainly wasn't a female last time.

Even if one isn't a committed Buddhist, it just helps us become better human beings.

This precious life is our opportunity. We are not the millions and millions of other things that are not human.

Realization is wonderful, but you have to expand it until there's not a single defilement left in the mind and the mind is completely open and spacious. Even in that condition, you still use the relative mind. You use them both.

To be enlightened doesn't mean you end up stupefied and unable to function.

The big lamas coming from Tibet, Ladakh, India - everywhere - have been very friendly. But I don't figure in their world. For one thing, being Western puts you outside the limits. A token female doesn't hurt - there's only one.