When struck by the desire arrow, all of our common sense, sobriety, and sanity go out the window while false dignity, decadence, and immorality trickle in. Poisoned, we stop at nothing to get what we want. Someone struck with passion might even find a streetwalking hippopotamus sexy, even as a beautiful girl loyally waits for him at home. Like moths to the flame and fish to baited hooks, many on this earth have been ensnared by their desire for food, fame, praise, money, beauty, and respect.

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:

• Today is the death of yesterday
• Being a Buddhist
• Primordial purity
• Clinging to our hopes and fears
• A practicing Buddhist
• A simple, scientific fact
• Living fully
• Our true nature is like a wineglass
• The spiritual path is a temporary solution
• Buying into emotions
• Pride and pity
• Like monkeys
• Your own ignorance betrays you
• Relationships
• Not paranoid but prepared
• Not a buddha yet
• I don’t give a damn
• Appreciating the whole cycle of impermanence
• The cup that holds the teachings
• Bound by practicality