Love can have this vast, all-encompassing quality. It can be allowed to spread until it permeates the very core of our relationships. Yet often, instead of giving love room to expand, we box it in with our expectations. Expectations make our love conditional on whether or not the relationship fulfills our wishes. How can you expect love to last when you demand that it meet your conditions, and you act as if you own another person?
17th Karmapa
from the book The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out
translated by Ngodup Tsering Burkhar & Damchö Diana Finnegan
Read a random quote or see all quotes by the 17th Karmapa.
Further quotes from the book The Heart Is Noble:
- Balanced Life
- Greed is a recipe for dissatisfaction
- Distinguishing between wants and needs
- Disconnected from our own noble heart
- My trust is a gift
- Boxed limitless potential
- A noble vision
- Look what he did
- The intention to work for others
- Loving Responsibility
- Authentic love
- Making healthy relationships possible
- Facing Impermanence Wisely
- The kindness we receive from others
- We truly have everything we need already
- Our relationship to the material world
- Let the moon be the keeper of my love
- Capacity for Change
- Who are you
- True Wealth