According to Buddhism, the origin of samsara can be summarized in one sentence: “It’s as far as the end of the sky, while so close as to be right in front of your eyes.” Therefore, everyone of us has experienced countless births and deaths in the samsara. It’s due to the lasting and distant nature of samsara, we can say “it’s as far as the end of the sky”; it’s due to every sentient being experiencing the start and the end of samsara — in every birth and death, daily deep sleep, arising and cessation of every thought — that we can say “it’s as close as right in front of our eyes.”

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

According to tantric teachings, there are many Chakras in the centre of our heart and throat. These Chakras and wind cannot be perceived by our naked eyes or machines, however they exist. When one is in control of these winds, all discursive thoughts lose their vitality. At present we are not in control of the operation or movement of wind, thus we are bombarded with discursive thoughts.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

Countless buddhas in the past, including Shakyamuni Buddha, vowed to liberate all sentient beings when giving rise to bodhicitta, vowing to attain buddhahood after all sentient beings attain buddhahood. We haven’t attained buddhahood yet, but they have. Why? Buddhas make such aspirations out of vast compassion. Due to the greatest and sublimity of their aspirations, they attained buddhahood swiftly. Whereas we are preoccupied with our own interest, thus we are still struggling in the samsara.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

According to Buddhism, the cause of sentient being’s cyclic existence doesn’t lie in the body, rather, it lies in karma. If karma exists, cyclic existence persists even if the body perishes. Because our alaya consciousness has lots of previous habitual patterns, when these habitual patterns ripen, the body comes into being. We can come to a conclusion that all phenomena is the by-product of alaya consciousness, be it a mountain, river, field, the sun, the moon, the stars or the body of sentient beings.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

Practitioners need to go with the flow in society, do whatever others do, be it fashion or trends, but abstaining from emulating the un-virtuous acts of others. The Mahayana Buddhism is rather humanistic and open. Modern buddhists need to appear as a fashionable and trendy person, but with an inner self liken to practitioners of 2500 years ago; this is a perfect combination! Buddhists need to have a mundane body and supra-mundane mind.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

As a Mahayanist, we should refrain from giving rise to thoughts of conquest: conquering nature, countries, nations or people; rather we should be grateful to nature and all sentient beings. Due to the existence of nature and sentient beings, we can achieve noble goals, which are engendering bodhicitta and realising emptiness.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

The Buddha told his disciples: it’s clinging to any objects that will become obstacles to liberation, not the value of the clung objects. At the time of death, if a rich person can distribute his assets properly, which leaves him with no attachment to his assets, the assets will not become obstacles to his liberation. To the contrary, even if one’s assets are not abundant, if one clings to them, then the assets will become obstacles to one’s liberation.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

Despite the fact that buddhas and bodhisattvas have transcended relative truth, not having a body of flesh and body, in order to liberate us, still they manifest a body of flesh and blood. BuddhaAmitabha of the Pure Land can’t liberate us, neither does Buddha Samantabhadra; although the sambhogakaya and the nirmanakaya of buddha are sublime, they are not able to liberate us, because they can’t communicate with us. Thus a teacher in a relative sense is vital.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

From the perspective of material life, our era has the most abundance of material wealth in human history. We possess advanced devices and products such as airplanes, wireless, computers, etc. However, compared with ancient people, we lost freedom, which is the most precious thing in the world. We need to contemplate on this problem and make some proper choices, endeavoring to give ourself more freedom.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES