By breaking down our sense of self-importance, all we lose is a parasite that has long infected our minds. What we gain in return is freedom, openness of mind, spontaneity, simplicity, altruism: all qualities inherent in happiness.
Nothing goes right on the outside when nothing is going right on the inside.
True freedom means freeing oneself from the dictates of the ego and its accompanying emotions.
The basic root of happiness lies in our minds; outer circumstances are nothing more than adverse or favourable.
When the mind is full of memories and preoccupied by the future, it misses the freshness of the present moment. In this way, we fail to recognize the luminous simplicity of mind that is always present behind the veils of thought.
Envy and jealousy stem from the fundamental inability to rejoice at someone else's happiness or success
Knowledge does not mean mastering a great quantity of different information, but understanding the nature of mind. This knowledge can penetrate each one of our thoughts and illuminate each one of our perceptions.
Simplifying our lives does not mean sinking into idleness, but on the contrary, getting rid of the most subtle aspect of laziness: the one which makes us take on thousands of less important activities.
Happiness is the main object of our aspirations, whatever name we give to it: fulfilment, deep satisfaction, serenity, accomplishment, wisdom, fortune, joy or inner peace, and however we try to seek it: creativity, justice, altruism, striving, completion of a plan or a piece of work.
That's what Buddhism has been trying to unravel - the mechanism of happiness and suffering. It is a science of the mind.
What counts is not the enormity of the task, but the size of the courage.
