1st Tibetan Buddhist initiation around 1980 in the Winter time in Ashland, Oregon

At that time I was trying to understand non-dualism and I was given an explanation that understanding non-dualism that you find in Tibetan Buddhism is sort of like understanding the weather. I had already realized how dualism (breaking everything down into good and bad ruthlessly) is something very childish and immature and more useful for someone with really serious PTSD or children than anything else.

This is how non-dualism was explained to me in a way I could finally understand it:

Is the Sun good or bad? Is the rain good or bad? Is snow good or bad? Is flooding Good or bad? Also, are droughts Good or Bad?

The answer to all these things is (if you are an adult) is: "It completely depends upon the situation."

For example, if you are in a drought and you get a flooding rainstorm or a blizzard it might be bad for you but good for everyone else. If you are out in a hailstorm and walking around it might be bad for you in that you might die. But, for someone else or even other creatures who might need that water it might be life giving or even life saving.

So, right away you start to see how dualism doesn't really serve anyone very usefully from this perspective. The value of dualism is only demonstrated when your 2 1/2 year old runs out into the street in front of cars hitting them and you paddle their butt so they don't die. This to me, might be the ONLY useful form of dualism I have ever heard of.

So, because I was a deep enough thinker I had moved past where people who are superstitious and ridiculous often live in fear and ignorance to a more enlightened place where fear isn't very useful in this context unless maybe you are standing on the edge of a cliff needing help not to jump.

So, my wife had helped me a lot with this because she shared how Native Americans tend to be non-dualistic and Tibetan Buddhists also tend to be non-dualistic as well.

Also, I have always been interested in what is sometimes called "Phenomena" and the Tibetan Buddhists are often full of phenomena of many different kinds. And when I finally went to India and Nepal and spent a lot of time with Tibetan Lamas and monks there in places like Dharamshala and Bodhgaya India I saw a lot of this Phenomena up close and personal. And I have never really seen anything like this in our American culture here in the U.S.

The basis of Tibetan Buddhism is developing compassion for all sentient beings in the past, present and future of our Galaxy. They even have a way of speaking about this which is: 

"May I become like the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Ten Directions and the Three times".

In other words they are saying "May I become like the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of all time and space" through this statement and likely the 10 directions would be how you actually navigate in space where there is no real up or down ever. And the 3 times are the Past, present and future.

So, neither time nor space is any barrier to a real Tibetan Buddhist who is sincere.