The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.
If you become a monk because it's an easy life, because you're going to be fed, and sheltered and people will respect you, then that is not a very meritorious motivation.
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 you're meeting with the dharma, you have probably been a human being before.
The world is full of incredible people who are embodiments of compassion. Some of them have a spiritual path; some of them don't.
When we read history we find that in all ages people have thought, this is the dark age.
To me the special quality (which of course many men have as well) is first of all a sharpness, a clarityIt cuts through - especially intellectual ossification. Itgets to the point. To me the dakini principle stands for the intuitive force.
I find its attention to living this life rather than the next one exhilarating because I think even independently of Judaism that that's the right way to go about life.
Before we had our becoming here, we existed There, men other than now; we were pure souls. Intelligence inbound with the entire of reality, not fenced off, integral to that All. [. . . ] Then it was as if One voice sounded. One word was uttered and from every side an ear attended and received and there was an effective hearing; now we are become a dual thing, no longer that which we were at first, dormant, and in a sense no longer present.
I don't have a bullet in my head, do I? So I'm fine.
The purpose of painting is to decorate the walls. Therefore it has to be as rich as possible