Death has become a consumer product. Most of us do not contemplate the nature of death on a deep level. We don’t acknowledge that our bodies and environment are made up of unstable elements that can fall apart with even the slightest provocation. Of course we know that one day we will die. But most of us, unless we have been diagnosed with a terminal illness, think that we are in the clear for the time being. On the rare occasion that we think about death, we wonder, How much will I inherit? or Where will they scatter my ashes?

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:

• Corrosion begins as soon as creation begins
• Nonviolence
• The primordial absence of defilements
• Products and parts
• Emptiness
• The real enemy
• What is in the mind of a Buddhist
• Acts of Generosity
• Today is the death of yesterday
• Being a Buddhist
• Primordial purity
• Clinging to our hopes and fears
• A practicing Buddhist
• A simple, scientific fact
• Living fully
• Our true nature is like a wineglass
• The spiritual path is a temporary solution
• Buying into emotions
• Pride and pity