Just as worn-out clothes can never again be made as new,
It’s no use seeing a doctor once you’re terminally ill;
You’ll have to go. We humans living on this earth
Are like streams and rivers flowing toward the ocean –
All living beings are heading for that single destination.

Now, like a small bird flying off from a treetop,
I, too, will not be here much longer; soon I must move on.

Padampa Sangye

from the book The Hundred Verses of Advice: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on What Matters Most

translated by Padmakara Translation Group


Read a random quote or see all quotes by Padampa Sangye.

Further quotes from the book The Hundred Verses of Advice:

• Don’t go on following the past
• The faults within
• The choice is clear
• When you reach the threshold of death
• Have you prepared yourselves a boat
• Putting down the heavy burden once and for all
• The freedom to practice the Dharma
• Free of being caught by anything at all
• Abandon negative friendships
• Being near a spiritual teacher
• Three essential points
• Flying off into the bardo
• Happiness and suffering
• Rather than being trapped by your perceptions
• Contemplating the defects of samsara
• Dwell in the simplicity of the present moment
• Love and compassion for all
• Nothing to be gained or lost
• How illness can teach us compassion