While the specific details of rebirth, in what form and when, are ultimately unknowable, the Buddhism described in this book stresses the importance of seeing the big picture—discovering the eternity of life within oneself. In this Buddhism, the challenge presented by the issue of death is to find the most valuable way to live.

When such a moment occurs, it’s like being in a special zone, where the unpredictable world outside and the turbulent world within merge, time is suspended, and we suddenly feel there’s nothing we can’t do.

This constant change or fluctuation, ex pressed by the Buddhist concept of “impermanence,” gives rise to the fundamental sufferings of human existence. But occasionally amid the flux of life, perhaps for a fleeting instant, we sense an underlying rhythm, a hum or a pulse, to all things. Such moments of insight and realization often occur after an e

In Buddhism, one could never be separate from the wisdom of God, because the ultimate wisdom already exists in the heart of every person.

Buddhism stresses inner, personal transformation as the way to promote lasting, sustainable resolutions to world problems.

It’s not what we do for a living but how we do it and whether we feel useful and find meaning in our work that make the difference.

The greater my love of mankind in general, the less I love people in particular, that is to say, separately, as individuals. —Fyodor Dostoevsky

Taken all together then, the phrase Nam-myohorenge-kyo could be translated as “I devote myself to the mystic law of cause and effect through sound.”

There’s no way out of this mess, except to become enlightened and then enjoy it. —Robert Thurman