“All beings have Buddha nature.  Just as milk is pervaded by butter, when the two accumulations are ‘churned’ with effort at some point Buddha nature will manifest!  That is my heart advice.  The difference between ‘Buddhas’ and ‘sentient beings’ is whether they have awakened awareness or not.  If you don’t cling to them as permanently different,  you will find Buddha within!  That is my heart advice.”  pages 6-7 Heartfelt Advice of Dharma Nectar

On Buddha Nature from H.H.Dalai Lama:  “From Buddha’s viewpoint, a human being has—through training, through practice—what we call the highest enlightened mental state. So through practice, a human being, through a sort of purification one’s own mental state, can eventually, finally, become an enlightened one. Even Buddha himself, in order to get final enlightenment, needed hard work.  Every sentient being—even insects—have Buddha nature. The seed of Buddha means consciousness, the cognitive power—the seed of enlightenment. That’s from Buddha’s viewpoint. All destructive things can be removed from the mind, so therefore there’s no reason to believe some sentient being cannot become Buddha. Every sentient being has that seed.” Come and learn from Khenpo Karten Rinpoche as he teaches in his own English about the amazing potential all beings have to engage Buddha Nature.

H.H. Dalai Lama quote source:  2010 PBS interview