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.

The very best players, when they are practicing, put everything they've got into it. But then they leave it for a while. And it's the same in dharma practice.

I do think that someone who decides to devote themselves entirely to the spiritual life, that that is more meritorious.

People get very deep experiences and they think they're enlightened. That's not enlightenment, that's just some realization.

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.

Some males are intelligent, some are dumb. Some females are intelligent, some are dumb. We're all human beings, no one is superior.

On a relative level where we live, we need to have a sense of identity, otherwise we'd fall apart, wouldn't we?