Practice falls into two categories: one is a meditation retreat, not necessarily for a month or a week, just keeping a simple retreat for two or three hours a day is very good. Strictly speaking, there is no way to practice any Dharma without doing retreat or in a distracted, indolent and unfocused state.

Another type of practice is to apply to our daily lives the Dharma that we gained through contemplation and the understanding of Dharma that arose during retreat. Without practice, many of life’s afflictions will remain unsolved. Listening to and contemplating the Dharma will does do some good—through the Buddha’s insights, we can see the true nature of the world and life, and we can become more open-minded—but this cannot completely resolve our afflictions. Therefore, while listening to and contemplating the Dharma, it is most important to also meditate on the Dharma.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 9: The Principles of Liberation

Although we all know that we cannot take anything with us when we die, we still struggle to get closer to the kind of life that money can buy, just so that we might have a happier life before we go. However, when people do become wealthier, their level of happiness does not grow along with the improvement of their living conditions.

Everyone is seeking a happy life, yet they all seem to be experiencing unhappiness of one kind or another. More and more people are realizing that having more money and possessions does not guarantee more happiness.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 6

It is also possible for virtue to turn into mutable karma. Therefore important that we safeguard all our virtuous karma as best we can. There are two ways to do this. One is dedication. The other, a better way, is to understand fully the meaning of emptiness, that is, knowing that virtuous karma is intrinsically illusory, like a dream. If we can contemplate in this way, even if anger arises it cannot destroy the root of virtue. Because anger is a defilement, a mental affliction rooted in attachment, it is incompatible with the view that all phenomena are illusory. But the virtuous actions we performed are directly associated with attaining realization of that view. Since something mired in attachment is inferior to the virtuous root planted with wisdom, anger cannot destroy this root of virtue. If we have neither attained any realization nor dedicated merit, but are constantly filled with anger, virtuous karma will be destroyed very easily. For ordinary people, the best way to preserve accumulated good karma is through the dedication of merit.

 ~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: On Cause and Effect

Basically we do not know much about what happens before or after this life. Through the twelve links of dependent arising, we can understand how we came into and how we leave this world, which affords us a better idea about the two ends of life. Although we have no clue as to what we were in our previous life, we know there were ignorance and karmic force. Neither do we know where we will be in our next life, but there will be birth, old age and death this much we know for sure.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1

Everything is constantly subject to origination (birth) and destruction (death). If there were no origination and destruction, or if things forever maintained their same state, then nothing would change at all and it would be impossible to have any movement. For instance, when a person is born, only then can living and death come into existence. The existence of all material phenomena consists of three stages: the origination stage at the beginning, the maintenance stage in the middle, and the destruction stage at the end.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 10

The doctrine of the twelve links of dependent arising is a key aspect of Buddhist thought. It mainly describes how the past, present and future lives of human beings and other sentient beings of the desire realm come about. In other words, it explains how we enter and leave this world.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1

The dividing line between a bodhisattva and a non-bodhisattva is the ability to let go of selfishness and care for all living beings from the bottom of one’s heart. “Living beings” does not only refer to human beings but includes seemingly insignificant creatures such as mosquitoes and earthworms. Certain people view the lives of animals as not having much value, but the animals themselves value their lives as quite precious. For example, human beings do not like mosquitoes and consider them to be pests that should be exterminated. However, if we turn the lens around, from the mosquito's perspective its life is extremely precious. We have no right to harm any living being just to serve our own interests.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 8

The most venerable Vimalaprabha has said that regardless of whether this period lasts one hour, two hours or one day, this state and the state of a buddha are no different. In other words, the Buddha's state and the state before the existence of samsara, as well as the state of waking up from fainting after death, can be seen as completely inseparable. This is because, through Dharma practice, a buddha has completely removed all afflictions and they no longer arise. Although ordinary people are able to experience this particular state for a moment, without practicing Dharma they are unable to stop the arising of afflictions altogether. This state only remains for a short while for ordinary people; subsequently, a new cycle of samsara will begin while a new bardo is created. The very first moment of the bardo arises from this state. Thus, this is one beginning of samsara, and this state is exactly the same as the process of the farthest beginning of samsara and the dawn of life.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 3: The Buddhist Theory of the Origin of Species

About those past misdeeds that we have performed but cannot recall, we can contemplate on them like this: “The misdeeds that I have committed since beginningless time, whether intentionally or unintentionally all of them are wrong. As if they were poison I have taken, I feel the greatest fear and regret for my actions, and vow never to commit them ever again.” In this way, all our negative karma can be changed into mutable karma. The significance of such resolve cannot be overstated. Otherwise, if we fail to do this, any karmic effect is possible.

 ~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: On Cause and Effect