new fortune.

[feisty_meow.git] / database / fortunes.dat

diff --git a/database/fortunes.dat b/database/fortunes.dat
index 7b6eb6a6d03d9e8cb22c246f13b15713ee2ee9e3..b8fc73ed3f3d49eeafe86a801146bf95c8286a09 100644 (file)
--- a/database/fortunes.dat
+++ b/database/fortunes.dat
@@ -38039,3 +38039,34 @@ strong generation of desire or hatred appears to you to be just senseless.
 Gradually, such a bias weakens, and you decide that one-sided classification
 of persons as friends and enemies has been a mistake.
   -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+  Generally speaking, even if money brings us happiness, it tends to be the
+kind that money can buy: material things and sensory experiences.  And these,
+we discover, become a source of suffering themselves.  As far as actual
+possessions are concerned, we must admit that they often cause us more, not
+less, difficulty in life.  The car breaks down, we lose our money, our most
+precious belongings are stolen, our house is damaged by fire.  Or we worry
+about these things happening.
+  The problem is not materialism as such.  Rather it is the underlying
+assumption that full satisfaction can arise from gratifying the senses alone.
+Unlike animals whose quest for happiness is restricted to survival and to the
+immediate gratification of sensory desires, we human beings have the capacity
+to experience happiness at a deeper level, which, when achieved, can overwhelm
+unhappy experiences.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+~
+We humans are social beings.  We come into the world as the result of
+others' actions.  We survive here in dependence on others.  Whether we like
+it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives in which we do not benefit
+from others' activities.  For this reason it is hardly surprising that most
+of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others.  Nor
+is it so remarkable that our greatest joy should come when we are motivated by
+concern for others.  But that is not all.  We find that not only do altruistic
+actions bring about happiness, but they also lessen our experience of
+suffering.  Here I am not suggesting that the individual whose actions are
+motivated by the wish to bring others happiness necessarily meets with less
+misfortune than the one who does not.  Sickness, old age, mishaps of one sort
+or another are the same for us all.  But the sufferings which undermine our
+internal peace—anxiety, doubt, disappointment—these are definitely less.
+  -- H.H. the Dalai Lama
+