If you're meeting with the dharma, you have probably been a human being before.

We've been human countless times and done everything you can imagine. So we've been planting all these negative seeds, and they're going to come up.

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

There is an enormous joy and satisfaction in doing what you really want to do and are best fitted to do. When it all comes together like that, it gives you a wonderful sense of well-being and satisfaction knowing that you have been doing what you were intended to do for this lifetime.

The real spiritual power is enabling beings to realize the nature of the mind. That's the power of Buddha activity.

If you become a monk because it's an easy life, because you're going to be fed, and sheltered and people will respect you, then that is not a very meritorious motivation.

For some people, every door opens, and they meet just who they need to meet when they need to meet them, all the conditions come together. For other people, there is one problem after the other, even though they are so sincere. And from a Tibetan point of view, this is because of a lack of merit.