If you’re going to find happiness, it’ll have to be through your actions — because the world out there doesn’t offer much. It offers some things, but then it takes them away.

"First, [karma] comes in the five reflections — at the end, after you’ve been thinking about aging, illness, death, and the fact that you’re going to be separated from all the things you love. Those four contemplations leave you hanging. The fifth contemplation is what brings you home. In other words, if you’re going to find happiness, it’ll have to be through your actions — because the world out there doesn’t offer much. It offers some things, but then it takes them away.

If you want happiness, you’re going to have to provide it through your own actions. That thought gives rise to a sense of what’s called pasada, or confidence. There is a way out, and this is it. And how do you work with your actions? You train your mind, which is the source of your actions. That’s what we’re doing right here, right now."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Bases of Success"

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