Siddhartha was right to think that teaching would be no easy task. In a world that is driven by greed, pride, and materialism, even teaching basic principles such as love, compassion, and philanthropy is very difficult, let alone the ultimate truth of emptiness. We are stuck with our short-term thinking and bound by practicality. For us, something must be tangible and immediately useful in order to be worth our investment of time and energy. By those criteria, emptiness as defined by Buddha seems completely useless.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book What Makes You Not a Buddhist

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Further quotes from the book What Makes You Not a Buddhist:

• Clinging to our hopes and fears
• A practicing Buddhist
• A simple, scientific fact
• Living fully
• Our true nature is like a wineglass
• The spiritual path is a temporary solution
• Buying into emotions
• Pride and pity
• Like monkeys
• Your own ignorance betrays you
• Relationships
• Not paranoid but prepared
• Not a buddha yet
• I don’t give a damn
• Appreciating the whole cycle of impermanence
• The cup that holds the teachings
• Enlightened beings may seem insane
• Buddhist renunciation
• What is life?