As my lama always told me, I learned that I practice better when I'm by myself.

My mother was a spiritualist. We had weekly séances at our house with a neighbor who was a medium and various friends, and so I was brought up with the idea that there are many realms of being all around us. So that prepared me for Buddhism, and especially Tibetan Buddhism with all its talk of different realms and dimensions of being.

If you lose interest in the dharma, then you might be reborn in a place where you are unlikely to meet with the dharma. And then you're completely off the path.

There are certain people who people think are enlightened. The problem with the word enlightenment is what you mean by it.

For so many centuries women have been suppressed and regarded as inferior. And that of course is not right at all, that we all have buddha-nature - so what's the difference?

Keep your practice very simple and don't be too ambitious.

I find that being with other people dissipates my energy.