Just entering into the dharma and taking refuge and bodhisattva vows is a tremendous amount of merit, but we need more and more and more.

I don't think I've changed anything, but I hope that by my talks I have encouraged people in their practice. That's as much as any of us can do.

All the other religions I had ever read about dealt with the idea of God, and your relationship with God. Buddhism is the only religion that deals with man himself and the nature of the mind - how to deal with yourself and your condition, here and now, as opposed to having to deal with something outside yourself.

The future of Dharma is in women's hands now because they have this energy which was never really tapped.

Obviously the dharma is every breath we take, every thought we think, every word we speak, if we do it with awareness and an open, caring heart.

I don't know why I got reborn as a female. Maybe in my past life I had some sympathy or something for women, but I certainly wasn't a female last time.

I'd say look at the teacher's students. Do you want to be like them? If you see a good and harmonious sangha, and if they're practicing well and are good people with good hearts, then you have a cause for trust.