Buddha saw the same old age and sickness and death that we see, but he was driven to find the root causes; and that, too, is a miracle. His realization that all compounded things are impermanent was his ultimate triumph. Instead of flaunting victory over some externally existing enemy, he found that the real enemy is our clinging to the self; and defeating that self-clinging is a miracle far greater than all supernatural miracles, real or imagined.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book What Makes You Not a Buddhist

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