Summer Alkadhem

“You want to live - but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying - and, tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“One day, after the Buddha and a group of
monks finished eating lunch mindfully together, a farmer, very agitated, came by and asked, "Monks, have you seen my cows? I don't think I can survive so much misfortune." The Buddha asked him, "What happened?" and the man said, "Monks, this morning all twelve of my cows ran away. And this year my whole crop of sesame plants was eaten by insects!" The Buddha said, "Sir, we have not seen your cows. Perhaps they have gone in the other direction." After the farmer went off in that direction, the Buddha turned to his Sangha and said, "Dear friends, do you know you are the happiest people on Earth? You have no cows or sesame plants to lose." We always try to accumulate more and more, and we think these "cows" are essential for our existence.

In fact, they may be the obstacles that prevent us from being happy. Release your cows and become a free person. Release your cows so you can be truly happy.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

“Why do I get angry when I am insulted? A: Because you entertain the verity of the insult.”
― Kapil Gupta, Direct Truth: Uncompromising, non-prescriptive Truths to the enduring questions of life

“In whatever form phenomena arise, they are
not real. All substantial things are unreal and false, like a mirage. They are not
permanent. They are not changeless. So what is the purpose of my attachment
to these perceptions? What is the purpose of my awe and terror? That which is
non-existent, I am seeing as existent! In reality, all these things that I
perceive are the perceptions of my own mind. Yet, the essential nature of mind is
primordially non-existent, like an illusion. So how is it possible for things to exist
externally, in their own right? Since I have not understood this before, I have
[always] regarded the non-existent as existent. I have regarded the unreal as
real. I have regarded illusions as truth. This is why I have roamed in cyclic
existence for such a long time. Now, yet again, if I do not realise that all these
[phenomena] are illusions, I will continue to roam in cyclic existence,
interminably, and without doubt, I will drown in a swamp of every manner of
suffering. Now, I must realise that all these phenomena are completely
devoid of substantial existence, even for a single instant. In reality, they are
like a dream, like an illusion, like an echo, like a celestial city, like a mirage, like
a reflection, like an optical illusion, like the moon reflected in water. It is
absolutely certain that these phenomena are not truly real, but that they are
false. Through this singular resolve, I will blow apart my apprehension of their
true existence”
― Padmasambhava