If you think everything ends with death, there’s never any sense of enough. But, if you realize that you’re going to keep coming back, back, back, back again, that changes things. So, keep that larger context in mind.

"You start with right view about kamma and rebirth in general, thinking about what those principles say about your life. If you think that life ends with death and that’s it — there’s nothing more — then that’s going to put everything else in your daily life into one context. But if you think of samsara as something that’s going to lead on for more and more and more lives, then your actions take on a different meaning.


You want to keep that larger context in mind, so that you can have a clear idea: What really is worth doing? What’s not worth doing? When you start getting attached to ideas, memories, material things, you can remind yourself, “Okay, you’ve had these things before, you’ve let go of them before, and you’ve come back to them again, and you’re setting yourself up to miss them again. Haven’t you had enough?”

If you think everything ends with death, there’s never any sense of enough. You want to grab as much as you can before you go. But, if you realize that you’re going to keep coming back, back, back, back again, and you’ve been through this many, many times — and what do you have to show for it? That changes things. As the Buddha said, you’ve shed more tears than there is water in the ocean. So, keep that larger context in mind."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Bringing Daily Life into the Practice"


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