We're always given the message that our potential is so limited, which is so sad. Actually, our potential is infinite.

When I look back I feel very grateful.

I think to dwell continually on the dark side creates gloom and despair and anger and hatred, and that just adds to the darkness. So rather than that, we need to think of the beauty in the world, and also send out love and compassion to all beings in this world. Not just the people we like, but people who we find difficult. Because they are very deeply in need of compassion.

In a monastic setting, if someone doesn't want to obey the rules and just wants to live the way they've always lived as a lay person, then why did they become ordained? They have no sense that they have to give something up to gain so much.

In this life you have obstacles.

To become effortless takes a lot of effort. It's good to compare it to learning an instrument or learning a sport.

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