In our lifetime, we have never experienced our innate clarity, even though all our suffering, happiness, and emotions come from deep within the mind. Buddhism often uses the term “clarity” to describe the most fundamental level of the mind (luminosity and clear light are other terms also used). This kind of “clarity” is neither visible light, nor non-visible light; it cannot be found in any electromagnetic spectrum in physics. It is a state of purity totally free of defilements. There is no happiness or joy, suffering or anxiety in this state of great equanimity.

Buddha Sakyamuni realized this clarity when he became enlightened. All Buddhist practitioners aspire to achieve the same realization. In the sutras, it is also called Buddha nature. Buddha nature or the innate clarity of mind can be directly realized and experienced. There is a saying in Ch’an Buddhism: One who drinks the water knows if it is cold or warm. The emphasis in Ch’an on knowing the nature of mind is none other than realization of this innate clarity.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - Suffering is just a Paper Tiger

In Tibetan Buddhism, the Kalacakra Tantra describes three different worlds – external, internal, and secret – and their connection to one another. The external is the universe, including the solar system, Milky Way, etc.; the internal is the physiology of the human body; the secret is the mind. It is explained that our spiritual world is a universe; the structure of our body is a universe; the universe outside is also a universe. All three are closely connected. To a certain degree, they affect one another.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS -Suffering is just a Paper Tiger

In our lifetime, we have never experienced our innate clarity, even though all our suffering, happiness, and emotions come from deep within the mind. Buddhism often uses the term “clarity” to describe the most fundamental level of the mind (luminosity and clear light are other terms also used). This kind of “clarity” is neither visible light, nor non-visible light; it cannot be found in any electromagnetic spectrum in physics. It is a state of purity totally free of defilements. There is no happiness or joy, suffering or anxiety in this state of great equanimity.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - Suffering is just a Paper Tiger

At the same time, we should also find out what samsara means, what the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, death and, in fact, the world as a whole signify. But all these questions can simply be summed up in the first Noble Truth—the nature of suffering. Once understanding the nature of suffering, we will have a better grasp on how to deal with the cycle of birth, aging, sickness and death, of which the root cause is the origin of suffering. How then can this cause be uprooted? As physical illness needs the right medication to be cured, cyclic existence can only be stopped with practice of the Dharma. To counteract defilements and attachment, one must exert a sharply opposing force in order to be effective. The process of exerting this counteracting force is the path leading to the cessation of suffering. In other words, the purpose of undertaking Dharma practice is to cease the endless cycle of rebirth and death, not unlike what the right medicine is to a patient.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Four Noble Truths—the Path Out of Samsara

What does true peace mean? After liberation, there is genuine freedom from the three types of suffering mentioned before; the seeds of the three types of suffering and their designations also cease to be. This pure and everlasting happiness is true peace. It is not the happiness ordinary people refer to; rather, happiness is just freedom from suffering that arises from contaminated actions. Because it is pure, it is deemed “true peace.”

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - Nirvana Is True Peace

Feeling is a specific aspect of the mind. Objects like steel, cement, brick, glass, etc. do not have feeling – they do not feel either suffering or happiness. After we die, the body is just like a stone or brick. When it comes in contact with earth, water, fire, wind or anything on the outside, it does not react. It is no longer conscious and thus cannot feel suffering or happiness.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - How to Face Suffering and Happiness-How to Face Suffering

Before meditation, we should first get ready, that is, shut the door, go to the bathroom, turn off the cell phone, etc. We should deal with these chores ahead of time so as not to disrupt the actual meditation practice. Thereafter, go to a shrine room if there is one, and prepare a cushion. This cushion is called a meditation cushion; it should be higher in back than in front to allow the body to sit comfortably. As you sit on the meditation cushion, make the following vow: during this sitting, I will remain in meditation no matter what.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - Preparing for the Preliminaries

Presently, on all the continents except Antarctica, there are children who can remember their past lives. When these children first began to talk, they would say who they were, where they came from; they would give their parents’ names and details of their past lives. Their parents in this life would then check and validate the actual existence and subsequent death of the persons mentioned. Often enough these children inherited very strong habitual tendencies from their past lives—one who loved to smoke in past life would steal his father’s cigarettes to smoke in this life; one who died of a car accident in past life would be too frightened to go near cars in this life, and so forth. Some of them don’t feel close to their parents of this life but take the parents and relatives in the past life as their real parents and family instead. Many parents are unwilling to make this public lest others should think their children are mentally unstable, out of embarrassment, or because it violates their own religious beliefs. Nevertheless, the secret gets out eventually.

~Depicted from THE HANDBOOK'S FOR LIFE JOURNEY - On Death And Rebirth-What Life Truly Is

It is also very important to place the texts of ‘liberation upon wearing’,³ such as the Tantra, Single Heir of the Doctrine, on the head of the beings to bless them. Beings touched by this will soon be able to attain liberation. One may question, “These beings have neither practiced nor received transmissions of the Dharma. Why should they be able to attain liberation simply by attaching such texts to their body or being touched by it?” The only plausible explanation would be the inconceivable power of the Buddha’s skillful means to deliver sentient beings from suffering.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - Liberating Living Beings