Most of the people I talk to are not going to go off and live in a cave. Why should they? So I talk about how people can stop separating dharma practice - going on retreats, going to dharma centers, hearing talks, reading books - from their ordinary life.

If you don't find that people find you're easier to live with than you were before, if you don't find that your heart is feeling warmer toward others and if your negative emotions are not getting any better, then there's something wrong. That is always the touchstone of the Dharma practice.

Whether we're in retreat or out in the world, we should try to develop the quality of awareness as much as possible.

We do have the precious opportunity of this human life.

There is a basic problem that a lot of Western monks and nuns become ordained without really understanding or appreciating what the monastic life is all about.

Different people are different.

We have to transform those ordinary actions of our day into dharma practice because otherwise nothing is going to move.