When we read history we find that in all ages people have thought, this is the dark age.

The new nuns don't know that they're 'supposed' to be meek and submissive, and so in many ways they believe they can do anything, because they've seen the earlier ones do it. In this way, there's nothing for them to doubt.

Wherever we are and whatever we're doing, we're either conscious, or we're not.

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.

Since I was a small child, I'd believed we were inherently perfect, and that we had to keep coming back again and again until we recognized our innate perfection.

A dog, however nice he is, and sweet-tempered, doesn't have much of a range of options. A human being does.

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