Tenzin Palmo
We're not lowly sinners, we're not worthless beings. We are something jewel-like and beautiful.Collection: Beautiful
If you're born in the higher realms, then it's too pleasant, and you don't have any incentive to practice. If you're born in the lower realms, you don't have any opportunity to practice.Collection: Opportunity
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.Collection: Buddhism
Tibetans - at least traditionally - are so totally permeated with the dharma that they don't see any difference between dharma and everyday life, really. And therefore they enjoy it because they don't make a separation.Collection: Differences
Obviously being relaxed doesn't mean that you make no effort.Collection: Mean
When I was in retreat I just did my meditation sessions and, in-between, reading and things I had to do.Collection: Reading
Joining the Sangha and renouncing worldly life is necessary in order to devote your whole life and all your energies toward the Dharma.Collection: Order
There is a basic problem that a lot of Western monks and nuns become ordained without really understanding or appreciating what the monastic life is all about.Collection: Appreciate
To be a nun is a very great blessing. It's a great inspiration to think that the Sangha goes all the way back to the Buddha and that so many fantastic, really truly-realized beings have been ordained. Thinking of all those members, such a wonderful, exalted and holy order - I love the Sangha.Collection: Inspiration
Caves are beautiful things you know. They're thermostatically controlled - warm when it's cold out and cool when it's warm. Very quiet. Nobody there. Especially in the winter - it was perfect. Also, because it's a cave, you can't do much with it.Collection: Beautiful
My body is not good for prostrations.Collection: Body
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.Collection: Buddhist
We're always given the message that our potential is so limited, which is so sad. Actually, our potential is infinite.Collection: Messages
Most of the spiritual traditions were very theistic and the idea of an external god pulling the strings didn't resonate with me. I then discovered Buddhism and found the perfect path. I felt so grateful to the Buddha for having given the path, and not just explaining the end result, but showing so clearly how to get there.Collection: Spiritual
The dharma is here. And the dharma is in your heart. Where else would it be?Collection: Heart
I really don't know what I could teach and don't really plan to teach.Collection: Teach
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.Collection: Past
If you just follow your inner calling, then you just go ahead.Collection: Calling
Basically, I feel to spend the rest of my life doing retreat.Collection: Retreat
Forget about realizing shunyata and going on the different bhumis and all this. Just stay in the moment, stay aware, be kind and try to improve your mind.Collection: Mind
People talk over and over about bodhichitta, but so often their heart is quite cold.Collection: Heart
I remember asking my mother if she believed in reincarnation and she said that that sounded very sensible, and I thought, yes, it does to me too. So I always believed in it. I can't remember when I didn't.Collection: Mother
Don't be thinking that this lama over there is giving better teachings or that this lama over here is giving more secret initiations. Leave that. Just keep the practice very simple, try to stay in the moment and try to stay mindful.Collection: Teaching
Look at your own potential. Don't overestimate your capabilities and push too hard, or underestimate them and use that as an excuse to be lazy.Collection: Lazy
I'm glad that I'm female.Collection: Female
When I look back I feel very grateful.Collection: Grateful
I think it would help if, when people are first ordained, they underwent a period of strict training, maybe for several years. During this time they would learn basic Buddhist philosophy in a monastic community where all the teaching and training was directed toward living a perfect monastic life and wasn't channeled out to fit into the lay life - which is what usually happens in Dharma centers where the teachings are directed toward how to live the Dharma in your everyday life.Collection: Buddhist
The Dharma is a very, very special and precious thing. The more you practice it, the more you will realize this.Collection: Practice
Other people may tell us, "Oh, you're so much nicer." Of course you can't hope that other people will tell you that you're so much nicer, but that's always a good sign. Perhaps people find that you're easier to live with.Collection: People
If you see young tulkus when they're with other little monks, it's like in a Broadway show or something where the main character is spotlighted and the others kind of fade into the background. And you think, who is that tulku? Because that's all you see, even though they're all dressed the same and they're all the same age, but it's like the tulku is illumined. They don't look like the other ones.Collection: Character
You can certainly learn how to rest in the nature of the mind.Collection: Mind
What I like about Tibetan Buddhism is it was taken to Tibet in the 7th century and then again in the 11th. It has everything that had been collected in India up until that time. And so on all levels, it's so vast.Collection: Taken
Different people are different.Collection: People
We don't want to go to heaven. We want to be reborn so that we can keep going and realize the dharma so we can benefit other beings, endlessly. It's a very different thing.Collection: Heaven
Until time and space exist... I vow to come back for the benefit of other beings.Collection: Space
I think, for East and West, the first thing we need is a good grounding in basic Buddhadharma.Collection: Thinking
If nuns begin getting more empowered, where does that leave us?Collection: Doe
I think many monks hesitate to change things.Collection: Thinking
Develop confidence in your innate qualities and believe that these qualities will be brought to fruition.Collection: Believe
There are certain people who people think are enlightened. The problem with the word enlightenment is what you mean by it.Collection: Mean
My mother's love was really not based on attachment. Her love was genuine love. To make me happy, not how I will make her happy.Collection: Mother
Our pure awareness is not male or female.Collection: Males
We all have our own karma and so different teachers will be meaningful to different students.Collection: Karma
If we could turn around and stand back, then we would see the whole complete pattern. And therefore what we have to do in this lifetime is to perfect this pattern, so that it will continue a most beautiful pattern next time and next time and next time and next time because we vowed until samsara is empty! Now, that's going to be a long time, so you'd better get prepared for the long haul, and the best way to do that is to really prepare yourself as much as possible in this lifetime, and not waste your opportunities so that we can genuinely benefit beings, endlessly, endlessly, endlessly.Collection: Beautiful
If we want to be musicians, dancers or sportspeople, we can download a certain amount and watch DVDs and read books, but in the end we need someone to assess us and give us personal instruction. The two go together.Collection: Book
All of the external circumstances and the rude and difficult people we meet, instead of getting angry, upset, or frustrated, we see that we can take them all and use them on the path in a way that actually invigorates and strengthens us, rather than defeats us. It's all very practical advice, and that's why I talk a lot about how to make our daily life into Dharma practice, otherwise it's easy to feel hopeless and helpless.Collection: Practice
We have produced many of our problems through our confused mental states.Collection: Confused
Actually we've got countless lifetimes, so relax.Collection: Relax
We're normally caught up in the current of our thinking, feelings and emotions. With awareness, we can observe it all without being swept away. This gives us access to something much vaster and deeper than our usual compressed minds. All of us can access this. It's not so difficult. With some instruction and practice, anybody can do it.Collection: Thinking