One of the beauties of the Buddhadharma is there are so many approaches, and not everything is right for everybody.

Traditionally, women didn't have much a role in Buddhism. The books were all written by monks, for other monks. So the general view of the feminine was rather misogynistic, with women playing the role of the forbidden other, waiting to pounce on innocent little monks! In that society, it was hard for women to become educated and get the deeper teachings and really become accomplished.

You can still practice to be a better and kinder and happier person. That's perfectly possible.

You can certainly learn how to rest in the nature of the mind.

It's only when all the dust is completely gone from the mirror, and there is only mirror, no dust, that we're really enlightened. So that's a lot of work.

People get very deep experiences and they think they're enlightened. That's not enlightenment, that's just some realization.

In the early '60s there was very little reliable information on Tibetan Buddhism. I was living in London and I had joined the Buddhist Society. For the most part, people there were either interested in Theravada or Zen Buddhism. There was almost no one into Tibetan Buddhism at that time.