Occasionally, people show me their new babies and ask me if that peaceful innocence is not just like that of the Buddha. Probably not, I tell them, for within that baby rest all of the latent seeds of worldly desire just waiting to sprout as the opportunity arises. On the other hand, the expression on the face of the Buddha, who has seen through the impermanence and suffering associated with such desires, reflects the invulnerability of true freedom.
– from Ram Dass’s “Introduction” to the 1981 edition of Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin
