His Holiness
The Third Dalai Lama
Sonam Gyatso
(1543–1588)
“One has had infinite previous lives in higher, lower and intermediate realms, but the Lord of Death, like a thief in a rich market place, has stolen them all indiscriminately. How fortunate that he has let one live this long! Generate a mind so filled with awareness of death that you sit like a man hunted by a desperate assassin.”
From Essence of Refined Gold by His Holiness the Third Dalai Lama Sonam Gyatso. Translated by Glen Mullin. Tushita Books (India), 1978.