We're not lowly sinners, we're not worthless beings. We are something jewel-like and beautiful.

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

From the point of view of emptiness, there is neither being nor non-being, but we're not on the point of view of emptiness, we're on the point of view of our relative being.

In India many people come to discuss things with me. I sometimes say that half of them come saying, "I have a problem, I want to find a teacher." The other half say, "I have a problem because I have a teacher!" So it's not so simple.

Each of us has something to do in this lifetime. We all have negative emotions to be purified and positive emotions to be cultivated. All of us need to reconnect to our source and drop our personal stories, don't we? Men, women, old, young, from here, from there - it is the same. All you can do is your practice. There is nothing else. Don't get caught up. Don't stop. We have to learn how to get out or our own way. Because ultimately, the only thing standing in our way is ourselves.

We've been human countless times and done everything you can imagine. So we've been planting all these negative seeds, and they're going to come up.

There are certain people who people think are enlightened. The problem with the word enlightenment is what you mean by it.