— Thinley Norbu, from “Echoes: The Boudhanath Teachings”

It is a mistake to think that Dharma can only be learned from Easterners. (…) This sort of attitude is irrelevant to the Dharma; one should never discriminate between peoples and countries. We should not feel that a particular country is full of savages and that there is no hope of learning anything from there, and we should not be concerned about the ethnic origin of a Dharma teacher. Any place in which Dharma is taught is an appropriate field of study, and any teacher with the necessary qualities is appropriate, regardless of his ancestry. We should learn Dharma wherever we can, seeking it wherever we can find it, without regard to social circumstances.
— Thinley Norbu, from “Echoes: The Boudhanath Teachings”