Our emotions propel us through extremes, from elation to depression, from good experiences to bad, from happiness to sadness: a constant swinging back and forth. Emotionality is the by-product of hope and fear, attachment and aversion. We have hope because we are attached to something we want. We have fear because we are averse to something we don’t want. As we follow our emotions, reacting to our experiences, we create karma: a perpetual motion that inevitably determines our future. We need to stop the extreme swings of the emotional pendulum so that we can find a place of centeredness.

Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche

from the book Gates to Buddhist Practice: Essential Teachings of a Tibetan Master

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Further quotes from the book Gates to Buddhist Practice:

• Understanding how delusion arises
• Reducing self-importance
• No overnight change
• Acceptance of what we have
• Changing the way the mind experiences reality