An appropriate question to ask a Buddhist is simply, “What is life?”

From our understanding of impermanence, the answer should be obvious: “Life is a big array of assembled phenomena, and thus life is impermanent.” It is a constant shifting, a collection of transitory experiences. And although myriad life-forms exist, one thing we all have in common is that no living being wishes to suffer. We all want to be happy, from presidents and billionaires to hardworking ants, bees, prawns, and butterflies.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book What Makes You Not a Buddhist

Read a random quote or see all quotes by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

Further quotes from the book What Makes You Not a Buddhist:

• Emotionally not possible
• Relationships
• Buying into emotions
• What is in the mind of a Buddhist
• The primordial absence of defilements
• Acts of Generosity
• Four seals
• Not paranoid but prepared
• Living fully
• Primordial purity
• Buddhist renunciation
• The real source of fear is not knowing
• The impossible is possible
• Driven by ambitions
• Pride and pity
• Shielding ourselves and others from the truth
• Bound by practicality
• Not a buddha yet
• Understanding the nature of enlightenment