You might spend your whole life in pursuit of only food and clothing, with great effort and without regard for suffering or harmful deeds, but when you die you can’t take even a single thing with you. Consider this well. The clothing and alms needed to keep you alive are all you need. You might dine on the finest meal of delicious meat and alcohol, but it all turns into something impure the very next morning, And there is nothing more to it than that. So be content with life-sustaining provisions and simple clothes, And be a loser when it comes to food, clothing and conversation.

Chatral Rinpoche

from the book Compassionate Action

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Further quotes from the book Compassionate Action:

• Taking advantage of our human existence
• Relying on the instructions of your own qualified teacher
• Use it well
• Not enjoying meat or alcohol
• The best form of austerity
• View and conduct
• But when you die
• All you need
• No real happiness
• Act accordingly
• By then it’s too late!
• Failing to let go of ordinary concerns
• A disciplined mind
• Your own true enemies
• Gaining the riches of a Dharma practitioner
• Three kinds of dharma practitioners
• The path of nonviolence
• Our responsibility