How we interpret information and our experiences of the world depends entirely on how much merit we have accumulated. For example, what does the word impermanent mean? On the grossest possible level, those who have very little merit believe that ‘ impermanent’ means decay and death, or the changing seasons. Once we start to accumulate merit, though, our understanding becomes more subtle. Imagine you are experiencing a moment of happiness. If you have a little merit you will be able, to a certain degree, to interpret and understand ‘impermanence’ and watch your mood change from unhappiness to happiness and back again, making any disappointment or hope you might feel less intense.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices
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Further quotes from the book Not for Happiness:
- For the sake of all other beings
- What Is Bodhichitta
- What is merit
- Where does low self-esteem come from
- Our fundamental problem
- We must also practice it
- Altruism bolsters self-confidence
- Nothing genuinely works in samsara
- Our most important companion
- Self Trapped
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- Being able to start practicing right away
- Obstacles Create Fertile Ground for Practice
- It cannot be fixed
- Life is a stream of sensory illusions
- Rip that ego apart
- Sign of a mature practitioner
- Not designed to cheer you up
- Three higher trainings
- Dawn of wisdom