You Are IT

If we only react with self-interest to whatever circumstances appear, we will make choices based on trying to find temporary satisfaction. But this effort is always ultimately hopeless, since everything within samsara is uncertain because it is changing. Through the shortsightedness of our habit, we do not even notice that we are missing what is meaningful, like someone who eagerly chooses to eat a cow’s red meat instead of continuously drinking its white milk.

If we believe that mind is continuous, our love for others becomes continuous. If we recognize this continuity, we do not trust temporary, tangible circumstances or take them too seriously. Since it is tiring to switch between changing uncertainties, which are inherently impermanent and unimportant, we become less easily influenced by any circumstance. This creates the habit of stability so that our minds are less erratic, our lives are less chaotic, and our feelings for others are less changeable, which causes love to become increasingly deep and loyal.

– Thinley Norbu Rinpoche