I think, for East and West, the first thing we need is a good grounding in basic Buddhadharma.

This is a time that calls for extreme restraint. In a world of outright aggression and violence there can be no winners. To respond to violence with counter-violence only throws oil on the fire.

Western Tibetan Buddhists are always looking out there at the distant snow peaks and they lose the flowers along the path.

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

We don't want to go to heaven. We want to be reborn so that we can keep going and realize the dharma so we can benefit other beings, endlessly. It's a very different thing.

I really don't know what I could teach and don't really plan to teach.

The Tibetans have many teachings on how to die, consciously, and how to remain in the clear light, and it works. You can see it working, and they can stay in that state for hours, days, or weeks.