I clutch my ideas.

[Astral Hereticus]

"I clutch my ideas."

The Buddha said that "Life is suffering and then you die".

You CHOOSE the suffering by clutching onto ideas of who you are -- by
identifying with a definition of your own SELF which you then defend
to the death -- right or wrong.
I tell my friends not to pigeonhole me with ideas of who they think I
am -- you are "this" or you are "that" etc...
I am FREE to CHOOSE my behavior at any instant in time from the whole
repertoire of human responses -- good or evil, appropriate to the
situation -- the CHOICE is MINE.
As humans, we ARE capable of ANYTHING -- brainwashing, cultural
conditioning and legal consequences notwithstanding.
A soon as we ATTACH to an idea of ourselves we are TRAPPED and will
instinctively defend our choice -- limiting our potential choices.
Only after I am dead can anyone summarize the list of CHOICES I have
made and call me intrinsically GOOD or BAD.
While I am alive I do not NEED to live up to anyone's expectations of
me -- that is FREEDOM.
This fundamental understanding cannot be TAUGHT and can only be FELT,
to the core of your being, through certain profound personal
experiences.

Others make their own misguided choices and cause suffering to many
and to themselves -- you are not responsible for that and cannot save
the world, but can teach them to make more enlightened choices.

AH

[Cole Rayne]

Buddha came to the conclusion of this first core realization in Buddhism, but he vowed to end it.  While a nobel, yet foolish quest, your to quote reflects the young teenage Buddha's first mission, beyond the decadence of his Kingdom, and dealing with that imbalance...and in discovering the balance within the balance.  The definitive first thought that begins and ends like inhale with exhale.  

But lets look at his history...he was reincarnated, and holy, and his day consisted of feasts, servitude available upon hand and foot, riches, adornments and excessive acts of sex by a concubine that was primed for their position, and the best at what they do.

It wasn't until he discovered his limitations that he had to face the challenge.

The grass is always greener.

A fairy tale is just that, a fairy tale.

But a hero embarks on his journey, and risks everything to do it.

Into the belly of his own beast, his inner demons, he fought with, in stubbornness, determined to win.

And in his first physical experience of suffering, by coincidence, or perhaps sleep deprivation, fatal malnourishment, the epiphany was a tickle of irony, by the passing by ranchers.  Reflecting on their routine trade secrets, of leash training of enslaved animals, he was able to see the universal wisdom in the most simple of statements, and it applied to every art of the equation ie: life, suffering, death, mastery of the cycle, the calming of the release, the teachings and of calming the thought pattern and existing in the moment and how it translated into a more efficient and balanced world, that could transform everything in its wake at the very interjection of its being.  Moments like those, are when, you feel in the flow with the moving tides, the warmth of the sun, the miracle of the universe and its glory, in harmonious accord.  A donkey fart could make the most of human foibles with its ability to laugh at the ridiculousness in anything that was too serious or adverse.  Humility, nobleness,  and learning sets in, memories created, soon to be stories to shared, not only to lead life with, but to leave behind for a better future for all existence on earth and beyond. 

This quote you begin with, denotes truths that are fixed variables to the fragments of the equation, leading to the main solution of Buddha's quest, the theorem, which was to find the middle road in everything, Including the extremity of finding the middle of the road, and when to lean left or right, kill or turn the other cheek, and when to hide out, drop out, and include a select group of people who he would allow to surround him in the mortal life, for fear of misleading the fellowship, or anyone for that matter.  I believe, in his afterlife his wisdom is abundant and all reaching without fear or regret, allowing the awakening the consciousness, and transformation of the oppressed, freedom resonating in the mind of every human being with challenges, desire, and strife as a necessary tool for the journey of one's lifetime, occurring as a testament to the quest for truth and achieved fulfillment, as a royal child, his spirit may be found in the lights in one's eyes, in the open wondrous gaze of a newborn child, the playful joyous demeanor, and imagination of a child, with the gumption of a child when he formulates reason into a question, while answers are mysterious, unknown, not of native understanding, and which answers can not be justified with "No".  

This man's life;  Be it man or myth, diety, entity, leader, God, Boddhisattva, the everything that is (that is nothing...but that's ok, too!) in spirit  or in science is a way of life free for all to embrace, but ultimately to discover and define for themselves...the journey, is activating and exersizing free will.  In the East, at the injunction of Buddhism, this allowed the Hindu class system to  resoundly honor all people as divine beings, with empathic reach into the animal kingdom, and recycle into practice of advancing the education, societal change, the eco-system and ascention.  How ironic that Buddha blessed so many things, that he sought solitude.  But it is in that very place he discovered enlightenment to begin with.

Hah!