Just because someone is very charismatic, it doesn't mean that they're genuinely qualified.

We have to transform those ordinary actions of our day into dharma practice because otherwise nothing is going to move.

Let's consider: at the time of the Buddha, when he attained enlightenment, according to the old texts, in the first watch of the night, he went through all of his past lifetimes. Then in the second watch of the night, his mind opened still further and encompassed the coming into being and dying and re-coming into being of all beings, everywhere. The third watch of the night, he realized interdependent origination. He realized interdependent origination because he saw it. It wasn't some theory he thought up. He saw it. That was his enlightenment experience. That was why he was a Buddha.

We don't always need to be sitting at the foot of the teacher, but from time to time we need someone who can overview us and give us direction.

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

The thing to do in this lifetime is to create more merit.

When one has a decisive realization of the inherent nature of the mind, which has no ego, it has no sense of duality between oneself and the cup, and a deep sense of interpenetration of the whole dharma. Then whatever we do is spontaneously perfect Buddha activity. And anybody who is even slightly tuned in will get a very deep experience of that.