- “I’m just a small crack in the wall; the wall of patriarchy; on the wall of the hierarchy; on the wall of injustice. Soon there will be more cracks and someday the wall will fall.”
- “Just the knowing mind itself, you are simply aware.”
- “I do not choose to be ordained because I want people to recognize me. I did it because I want to carry on the heritage of the Lord Buddha. I am trying to revive the four pillars of Buddhism—bhikkus, bhikkhunis, laymen and laywomen—that will sustain the religion into the future. I don’t mind if some people reserve different opinions about bhikkhunis. The public will be the ones to judge our worth.”
- “But in my life, in my line of practise, every moment breathing in and out – this is the practise. To talk to people and maintain equanimity; to talk to my students without getting frustrated, that is practise.”
- “So the sitting with closed eyes kind of meditation is good practise for beginners, so that you know how to handle your Greed, Hatred and Delusion [Lobha, Dosa, Moha]. It is meant for that kind of practise to give you the experience of calmness of mind, so that you can extend it when you have your eyes open …..”
- “Westerners go around and shop around and finally make the choice to be Buddhist. When you are thrown into it by birth it is difficult to see the value of it, hard to really appreciate. So I will not be surprised if in the end Buddhism is greater in the West.”
- “In the last 10 years people are coming asking questions, really asking, not happy with just what they have learned from the traditional monks – a lot more questions are coming from the public.”
- “Your intention is to let go of the suffering. Your intention is to get back to our original mind, the mind before it is first functioning, the mind as it is.”
- “His Holiness [Dalai Lama] always wanted to ordain women in his tradition, which comes from the Mula-Sarvastivada tradition.”
- “I think the understanding of Buddhism is much more in depth in the west, compared with the traditional Buddhist countries – which I call ‘Buddhist by birth, Buddhist by chance’, where you are Buddhist by choice.”
- “We generally take it for granted that we will live forever. Indeed, we have to be thankful that we wake up and have this whole body, still perfect.”
- “When we practice, it’s one day at a time and one moment at a time.”
- “History is written by men, about men, for men, so we start to write a story about women, from a woman’s story – that’s a different voice.”
- “The fact that you have meditated – the fact that you kept your mental stage in a very pure stage, that is a good enough wholesome action to continue to generate with dedication.”
- “When you experience that calmness and quietness, it is so relaxed, so light. It is the kind of experience that you seldom get in the worldly lifestyle.”
- “You should be observing the five precepts. Not to kill, in Christianity, you take it as an order from God we ought not kill. But in Buddhism we do not have such a ‘God-concept’.”
- “When we bow down before a Buddha image it means we are able to let go of the importance of the self. We bring our head below our heart. We bow with body, heart and mind and by so doing we gain merit. When a student bows before a teacher, it is the student who gains merit because she/he is able to let go of the self; the teacher gains nothing at all.”
- “So to understand Buddhism in order to free ourselves from suffering, there is no need to go into details of the philosophical engagement. The message of Buddhism is very simple and down to earth, practicable.”
- “My Mother was also fully ordained but she was ordained in Taiwan.”
- “We are pure in our intention. Intention to meditate is to lessen the defilements in order so that we can lessen our suffering.”
- “When I cremated my Mother, I cremated all the negative energies along with the fire that consumed her body and now I am retaining all the good qualities from my Mother.”
- “I feel even more strengthened and even more certain and that my Mother is still very much with me.”
- “The fact that you are sitting here, you are representing your grandparents.”
- “When you experience this calmness of the mind, even though it is still only at the concentration level, it is so peaceful. It is such a wonderful experience. You would not want to let go of it.”
- “Keep continuing this practice when you are going to sleep, when you lie down, you continue doing this, and it doesn’t matter if you fall asleep, that will be a great benefit because your mind will be in the meditative stage.”
