Whether we're in retreat or out in the world, we should try to develop the quality of awareness as much as possible.

I think, for East and West, the first thing we need is a good grounding in basic Buddhadharma.

The real spiritual power is enabling beings to realize the nature of the mind. That's the power of Buddha activity.

My mother was a spiritualist. We had weekly séances at our house with a neighbor who was a medium and various friends, and so I was brought up with the idea that there are many realms of being all around us. So that prepared me for Buddhism, and especially Tibetan Buddhism with all its talk of different realms and dimensions of being.

We do look for inspiration amongst our own sex. Why not? You go into temples and they're full of all the lineage lamas who are male. What message does that give to a young girl, except that somehow she got trapped in the wrong body because of bad things she did in a past life?

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

There are certain teachers who shouldn't be teachers.