From the point of view of the relative world, merit is very important.

One thing in the Buddhadharma is that we are not our body, we are not our gender.

There is an enormous joy and satisfaction in doing what you really want to do and are best fitted to do. When it all comes together like that, it gives you a wonderful sense of well-being and satisfaction knowing that you have been doing what you were intended to do for this lifetime.

Basically, I feel to spend the rest of my life doing retreat.

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

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

I think the difference is that when we drink tea, we just drink tea. But if you're in the presence of a genuine master, they don't have to do anything but drink their tea, and yet it affects you at an incredibly profound level.