“When you live alone, you can still be stupid. You can still suffer. When you live with a lot of people, you can be stupid and suffer. It’s like chicken shit. If you hold it by yourself, it stinks. If you hold it with a lot of people, it stinks.
There’s a way in which it’s right to think that living with a lot of people isn’t quiet, but living with a lot of people can also give rise to lots of discernment. I myself have gained a lot of discernment from having lots of students. When lots of people with lots of ideas and lots of experiences come together, it has to give rise to stronger and greater powers of endurance. I can endure. I can keep on contemplating things. It’s all beneficial.
The cycles of wandering-on keep spinning around—so how can you keep running after them? If they speed up, can you catch up with them? Just stand in one place, and the cycles will keep running around you on their own. It’s like a wind-up doll running around and around in circles. You stay right in the middle and you’ll see it each time it runs past. You don’t have to go running after it.”