"When griefs are genuine, I find, there is nothing more vacuous, more burdensome, or even more impertinent, than letters of consolation."

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I reject karma and rebirth not only because I find them unintelligible, but because I believe they obscure and distort what the Buddha was trying to say. Rather than offering the balm of consolation, the Buddha encouraged us to peer deep and unflinchingly into the heart of the bewildering and painful experience that life can so often be.

— Stephen Batchelor