There Are No Three Years

S: Would you recommend a three-year personal retreat or the three-year retreat at Gampo Abbey?

KTGR: There are no three years. Whenever it is, it is the present [laughter]. Since the time we were born from our mother's womb, the only thing we have seen is the present. We have never seen the past and we have never seen the future. Wherever we are, whatever time it is, it is only the present. 

The present does not remain beyond a single instant [snaps fingers]. That is why the three times are the same. You must remember that the three times are equal.

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, The Union of Sutra and Tantra, Karme Choling, 2001, p. 339.  

Translated by Elizabeth Callahan