With such thoughts make efforts in the refuge and live as best as you can in the five lifelong precepts, praised by the Buddha as the basis of lay life. Take the eight one-day precepts at times and guard them dearly.

If what you do brings on suffering eventually, though it may appear as happiness at that moment, do not do it. After all, food that is beautifully cooked but mixed with poison is left untouched, is it not?

If somebody is telling me about some other people, “Oh they’re this and this,” I want to get to know them so I can see what they really are like. That is because in the religion I grew up with a lot of holy figures who had a lot of excellent qualities, but…

The Dharma is the real refuge. What we need to do first is take refuge in the causal three refuges: the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha that are at the moment external to us. Only when we had realised the Buddha, Dharma and…

If people are really practising, when they saw themselves getting mad at the person who left the dirty dish in the sink, they would say, “I’m angry. Why? What am I thinking? Oh, I have this whole story I’m telling myself, that people are…