In this installment of the Open Mind series, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, a contemplative Buddhist nun from England who spent 12 years meditating in a cave high in the Himalayas offers her views on human potential in this Q&A. Some highlights:

"Our human potential is to transform ourselves from ordinary, unenlightened, conditioned human beings into perfect embodiments of wisdom and compassion."

"We see how much everyone wants to be happy, and yet because of our ignorance — our lack of understanding — we just put so much effort into making ourselves and everybody else miserable! … We mess everything up because we don't see things as they truly are."

"Meditation is all about trying to recognize that level of mind which is our true nature, and is very different from our ordinary, conceptual thinking."

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo is the author of several books and is biographied in the book Cave in the Snow by Australian journalist Vicki Mackenzie.