Even though we don’t consider ourselves to be so desperate, and believe that we are well educated, sane, and sober, when we see and feel that everything truly exists, we are behaving like the man in the desert. We rush to find authentic companionship, security, recognition, and success, or simply peace and quiet. We may even succeed in grasping some semblance of our desires. But just like the wanderer, when we depend on external substantiation, eventually we are disappointed. Things are not as they seem: they are impermanent and they are not entirely within our control.

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:

• Living fully
• Not paranoid but prepared
• Primordial purity
• Buddhist renunciation
• The impossible is possible
• The real source of fear is not knowing
• Driven by ambitions
• Shielding ourselves and others from the truth
• Pride and pity
• Not a buddha yet
• Bound by practicality
• Understanding the nature of enlightenment
• Corrosion begins as soon as creation begins
• What is life?
• Like a child at the cinema
• Fearlessness
• Change is inevitable
• Where will they scatter my ashes
• Being a Buddhist
• Pride and pity