You can pile up grass to the height of a mountain, but if you take each blade of grass one by one, you will end up with nothing, with no such thing as a “mountain” entity. In the same way, with many stones we can make a solid wall. But if we then remove the stones one by one, not even the name “wall” will be left. Sometimes bubbles appear on the surface of a body of water. From the outside they look like spheres, with a certain solid form that lasts. But when they burst, nothing is left. Similarly, we have taken for granted that the body is existent when in reality there is no such thing. Unavoidably we come to the conclusion that the body does not truly exist.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book Pith Instructions: Selected Teachings and Poems
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Further quotes from the book Pith Instructions:
- Clinging to the body
- No modification
- Guidance of a qualified teacher
- Emptiness and the law of cause and effect
- Under the influence of the three poison
- The dawn of naked wisdom
- Eating tasty but poisonous plants