Kongtrul Rinpoche suggested we pray to the guru, buddhas, and bodhisattvas and ask them to grant their blessings, “So I may give birth to the heart of sadness.”

But what is a “heart of sadness”? Imagine one night you have a dream. Although it is a good dream, deep down you know that eventually you will have to wake up and it will be over. In life, too, sooner or later, whatever the state of our relationships, or our health, our jobs and every aspect of our lives, everything, absolutely everything, will change.

And the little bell ringing in the back of your head to remind you of this inevitability is what is called the “heart of sadness.” Life, you realise, is a race against time, and you should never put off dharma practice until next year, next month, or tomorrow, because the future may never happen.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices

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

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
• Relative and absolute truth
• 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