In the beginning especially, we won't realize we're changing.

First you have to help yourself.

People talk over and over about bodhichitta, but so often their heart is quite cold.

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

I don't think I've changed anything, but I hope that by my talks I have encouraged people in their practice. That's as much as any of us can do.

We're always given the message that our potential is so limited, which is so sad. Actually, our potential is infinite.

We have compassion because of the incredible pain and suffering which we as unenlightened beings cause to ourselves and all others through our ignorance. This is why we're trying to get out. This is why the bodhisattva has meaning. Because we're saying, no we won't get out, we won't escape until we've helped all other beings to escape, but most other beings don't even want to escape. They don't even know that there is an escape, and it's hard, so it's going to take an awfully long time.