The various activities of ordinary life follow one after another like the waves of the ocean. The rich never feel they have enough money; the powerful never feel they have enough power. Think about it: the best way to satisfy all your desires and complete all your projects is to abandon them.

A realized being sees the preoccupations of ordinary people as being like the events in a dream, and watches them like an old man watching children play. Last night you dreamed, perhaps, of being a great king, but when you woke up, what was left? What you experience in the waking state has scarcely more reality than that.

Rather than pursuing these elusive dreams, let your mind rest in serene contemplation, free of mental agitation and distraction, until the realization of emptiness becomes an integral part of your experience.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book The Hundred Verses of Advice: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on What Matters Most

translated by Padmakara Translation Group


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Further quotes from the book The Hundred Verses of Advice:

• Don’t go on following the past
• You will have to go
• The faults within
• When you reach the threshold of death
• The choice is clear
• Have you prepared yourselves a boat
• Putting down the heavy burden once and for all
• The freedom to practice the Dharma
• Free of being caught by anything at all
• Abandon negative friendships
• Three essential points
• Being near a spiritual teacher
• Flying off into the bardo
• Happiness and suffering
• Rather than being trapped by your perceptions
• Contemplating the defects of samsara
• Dwell in the simplicity of the present moment
• Love and compassion for all
• Nothing to be gained or lost
• Devotion is the fare on our journey toward enlightenment