Today is the fourth of August 1999 and we are in the New Hamlet for our time of questions and answer.

1. A written question by a twelve-year-old girl asks how she can build a true link with her father who gets angry easily and finds it hard to forgive him?
2. Is there something like a collective mind we all are part of, and can mindfulness and compassion help us develop a seventh sense to connect to it again?
3. Observing that thoughts and actions emerge from imperceptible conditions we don’t control, is there any free choice or are we puppets of manifestation?
4. Sometimes we must contemplate the past or the future to make a difficult decision—how can we use mindfulness of the here and now to understand the future and our decision?
5. When embarrassed by choice, such as being torn between three women at once, how can one make a decision that leads to happiness?
6. Having been trained in the love of Jesus, how can one learn to love Buddha, and what is the comparison between Jesus, Buddha, and God?
7. In a community with both women and men monastics, do they have equal status, and if you retire, could a woman receive transmission from you?
8. What are the forms and levels of commitment for lay and monastic practitioners in your community—is there a progressive system like postulant, novice, vows, and how can one disengage?
9. If someone follows the entire monastic training and transmission but later wishes to leave monastic life, are they free to do so?
10. In two weeks I’ll volunteer as a psychologist in Kosovo and Macedonia—what personal advice can I take about what to give people there and the way of being among different cultures who have suffered?
11. Sometimes you give Dharma talks starting from a kōan but seem skeptical of kōan meditation—what is the right approach to a kōan?
12. When eating a banana or using products, information reveals harms like underpaid labor or GMOs—how should we deal with this pain and what is the role of information in mindfulness?
13. What is your attitude toward God—do you regard God as a reality or as a concept?