By nature, the act of assembly is bound by time—a beginning, a middle, and an end. This book did not exist before, it appears to exist now, and eventually it will fall apart. Similarly, the self that existed yesterday—that is, you—is different from the self that exists today. Your bad mood has become good, you may have learned something, you have new memories, the scrape on your knee has healed a little. Our seemingly continuous existence is a series of beginnings and endings bound by time. Even the very act of creation requires time: a time before existing, a time of coming into existence, and an end to the act of creation.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book What Makes You Not a Buddhist

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