“Question: Lama, as I understand it, you said that the basic problem is that individuals lose touch with their own nature. How do we lose touch with our own nature? Why does it happen? Lama: One reason is that we are preoccupied with what’s going on outside of ourselves. We are so interested in what’s going on in the sense world that we do not take the time to examine what’s going on in our minds. We never ask ourselves why the sense world is so interesting, why things appear as they do, why we respond to them as we do. I’m not saying we should ignore the outside world, but we should expend at least an equal amount of energy analyzing our relationship with it. If we can comprehend the nature of both the subject and the object, then we can really put an end to our problems. You might feel that materially your life is perfect, but you can still ask yourself, “Does this really satisfy me? Is this all there is?” You can check your mind, “Where does satisfaction really come from?” If you understand that satisfaction does not depend only on external things, you can enjoy both material possessions and peace of mind.”