We need to be sincere in our practice, but at the same time we can't take ourselves too seriously.

Even if one isn't a committed Buddhist, it just helps us become better human beings.

Distraction is the main problem for us all - what the Buddha called the monkey mind. We need to tame this monkey mind.

We've been human countless times and done everything you can imagine. So we've been planting all these negative seeds, and they're going to come up.

There are other ways of benefiting than by being a recognized tulku and sitting on a throne.

We're not making up merit scores for ourselves. We're making up merit scores so that we can be reborn in a situation where we can really live to benefit ourselves and others.

Monastic life cuts off the distractions and emotional entanglements one becomes involved in, in the lay life.