Our thinking can create liberation or it can create imprisonment. It depends on how we use our mind.

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

We shouldn't be too naïve, or taken in by charisma.

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.

We do have the precious opportunity of this human life.

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.

The first thing is to learn how to quiet the mind, relax the mind, and bring the awareness to the front so that we are conscious of what we're doing when we're doing it without all the commentary.