If nuns begin getting more empowered, where does that leave us?

Of course, now as a woman you can do so much, without being necessarily a rinpoche.

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

I think the problem with Western students is they're very ambitious.

Some students went to Milarepa and said, we should stop living in caves and meditating because we should go out and help beings as bodhisattvas. And Milarepa said that as long as space exists, so long will there be beings for you to help.

If we could turn around and stand back, then we would see the whole complete pattern. And therefore what we have to do in this lifetime is to perfect this pattern, so that it will continue a most beautiful pattern next time and next time and next time and next time because we vowed until samsara is empty! Now, that's going to be a long time, so you'd better get prepared for the long haul, and the best way to do that is to really prepare yourself as much as possible in this lifetime, and not waste your opportunities so that we can genuinely benefit beings, endlessly, endlessly, endlessly.

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