Most of the time we are trying to make the good things last, or we are thinking about replacing them with something even better in the future, or we are sunk in the past, reminiscing about happier times. Ironically, we never truly appreciated the experience for which we are nostalgic because we were too busy clinging to our hopes and fears at the time.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book What Makes You Not a Buddhist

Read a random quote or see all quotes by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

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

• I don’t give a damn
• Appreciating the whole cycle of impermanence
• The cup that holds the teachings
• Bound by practicality
• Enlightened beings may seem insane
• Buddhist renunciation
• What is life?
• The Self
• The habit of self
• Pride and pity
• Emotionally not possible
• Change is inevitable
• Beyond nonviolence and meditation
• Eventually we are disappointed
• Like a child at the cinema
• Four seals
• Enjoying the bliss of ignorance
• The impossible is possible
• The real source of fear is not knowing
• Happily ever after