Quote from the Dhammapada

I chose this quote randomly from a mass of them which I had actually turned on their faces on my desk. I feel it connects partly with what I just wrote about concerning heartache.

"There is no fire like greed, no crime like hatred, no sorrow like separation, no sickness like hunger of the heart, and no joy like the joy of freedom." - The Dhammapada

The Dhammapada is a collection of 423 verses in Pali said to be uttered by the Buddha. In actuality, it doesn't quite matter who happened to mumble them--what matters is that they still hold value and meaning today because as they were human beings back then, so are we of the same stuff.

Cutting it up slowly, he says that there is no fire like greed which I take to signify that once you start on the road to amassing "things" and the things of others, you can't quite stop. This is much like a raging fire with no one near to put it out and it becomes the responsibility of the fire itself to stop spreading and leaving destruction in its wake. "There is no crime like hatred," he mumbled next. Whether it be unfounded hatred such as the hate someone might hold for a certain race of people or the hate of someone who has done you wrong, there is no crime quite like it because it spawns not only other crimes, but more of itself--hate. No sorrow like separation and no pain like heartache. Nothing seems to quite go beyond them and even a broken bone or a raging fever pale in comparison. And yet, there is no joy like that which comes from being free. Freedom, but freedom from what? I take it to mean your mind. There is absolutely no joy and no peace that could ever compare to the freedom from your mind. This became very true for me when after finding out that my love had found a new one of his own, I could only find joy in silencing my thoughts. Entertainment, food, talking with other people, none of these things aided me and in fact, repulsed me. The serenity of a quiet mind is the only place where I will find joy until my mind can speak its words and not harm my heart.

To sum it up in a neat package, it seems that there is no joy like the joy of freedom: freedom from greed, from hatred, from being so affected with someone that once they are gone, you seem to be too. There is no freedom like freedom from the heart. Yes, love and love some more, but do no associate your entire being with the beat in your chest.