Three years ago, I asked everyone in the class to write me a note telling me how and what each one would arrange for daily practice. Now I would like to know what, if any, progress you have made in these three years. In other words, have you learned anything concrete from your practice? The Buddhist logic holds that regardless of what phenomenon, if it does not move in as short a time as one-ten-thousandth of a second, it will not move in the subsequent one-ten-thousandth of a second either even until the final one-ten-thousandth. If no progress has been made in all these time, I am afraid that none ever will, even in another six, nine or twelve years!

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Way of Living and the Meaning of Life

We should know our inner world is truly very miraculous. To visit this world, we rely neither on data nor examination by instruments, but rather on the practices unique to Buddhism. This is not blind faith; it is very real, just as food can satisfy hunger, water can change to ice under freezing temperature.

The undulations of fundamental ignorance are very similar to the discovery in string theory in physics. In the past, we used to think particles such as protons and neutrons are specks of matter. String theory tells us that the basic structure of matter is a vibrating string; with different patterns of vibration, a different particle appears. Although the particle appears like a speck of matter, it is actually a vibration. We only see the illusion due to our biased vision.

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

What does the mandala perceived by a bodhisattva on the eighth ground and by a buddha look like?

The word mandala is a Sanskrit term that means an encircled universe with a core center.

This mandala appears before all sentient beings during bardo; at the time of death, an experience similar to the condition around the Big Bang in the universe occurs—our eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mental consciousness, as well alaya consciousness all disappear or temporarily stop operating. The alaya consciousness is the carrier of all impure phenomena; when it disappears, a luminous state emerges. In tantra, this is called the ground luminosity or mother luminosity, the fundamental and original face of all phenomena. In Dzogchen, it is also called the clear light of death, because it cannot appear under normal circumstances, only at the time of death.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO THE VAJRAYANA PATH - Vajrayana Terminology

Please don’t always blame others for your suffering. There is no suffering in the world that is purely caused by other people and that has nothing to do with our own doing. We are also responsible to a certain extent. Even if it is not due to the mistakes made in this life, those committed in previous lives may also be the culprit. So learn to accept one’s own responsibility, practice Dharma diligently, transform suffering and help sentient beings to liberation from samsara. This should be the best route for us.

~Depicted from THE HANDBOOK'S FOR LIFE JOURNEY - On The Three Poisons-How to Handle Desire

When desire is exhausted, anger is exhausted, delusion is ex- hausted, and all afflictions are exhausted — this is called nirvana.

What is nirvana? Liberation is nirvana. From the standpoint of Mahayana Buddhism, the three bodies of an enlightened being – dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya – and the five wisdoms are called nirvana.

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 

Take the example of offering butter lamp to the Three Jewels. Given the same object of offering, act of offering and person who offers, the practice will be deemed mundane when renunciation is not generated and the purpose of the offering is to obtain worldly benefits like health, longevity, job promotion, wealth and so on, or a favorable rebirth. Conversely, offering lamp out of true renunciation and to seek liberation from samsara will be considered a supramundane practice. Therefore, the gauge for distinguishing the mundane from the supramundane is no other than whether one has renounced worldly pursuits or not.

The Great Perfection itself is deemed supramundane, but our motivation for practicing it or listening to its teachings could turn it into a mundane practice instead. If our motivation were to gain benefits in this or next life, the teaching of the Great Perfection would cease to be supramundane upon entering our mindstream; it would not even be a Mahayana practice. What would it be then? It would just be a mundane practice, or, a practice of mundane Great Perfection.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Differences

Fourth, establish the right view on life. Do not idealize life, or see it as perfect. If we are not alert to impending crises, we will be greatly disappointed when confronted with birth, aging, sickness, and death and various kinds of suffering. We may take extreme steps if we cannot handle the suffering. Hence, the right amount of precaution is necessary to surmount life’s difficulties. When accidents happen, we should always remind ourselves: birth, aging, sickness, and death; sadness, joy, parting, and reunion are all part of life. None of us are spared or can escape, so we must not be overly weak. In life, there are many complications and misfortunes which cannot be avoided; some happen for objective reasons, some are caused by our past karma. Whatever the reason, we cannot run away from them. As long as we have a body, we will experience birth, aging, sickness, and death. If we are not strong enough to deal with this, we will incur a great deal of suffering.

Buddha Sakyamuni handed down many methods to face birth, aging, sickness, and death, and always taught us to confront, not run away from our suffering

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - The Tibetan Buddhist View on Happiness

At this stage, to defeat suffering is not to cut through the root of the suffering, which would eliminate any possibility of it arising again. This goal can only be achieved at the end when we attain liberation. For now, we should use meditation practice to turn suffering into the path, to prevent suffering from affecting our practice and life. In this way, we can “defeat suffering.”

The suffering we encounter in real life may be connected with money, relationships, marriage, etc. Without meditation practice, an ordinary person will have difficulty defeating suffering. Most people look outside for the source of their suffering; they also resolve their suffering by changing the condition outside. For instance, if a person is unhappy with another person, he will suffer if he cannot get over this negative emotion. To resolve the problem, he may try to injure and kill the other person. But he has not really defeated suffering this way. Only genuine practitioners can be freed from the pain of suffering and truly defeat it.

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

First, do not compare. The more we like to compare with others, the less likely we are to find happiness. Take as an example a person who owns a high-performance luxury car; if he likes to compare, he is sure to find someone in his circle of friends who has a better car. As in the saying “there is always a better man, a higher mountain,” even if the person excels in everything now, there is no guarantee he won’t be surpassed in a year or two. If he chooses to compete again at that time, he will find himself in a very tiresome chase. To compare is not necessary in life, but it is often the cause of great suffering.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - The Tibetan Buddhist View on Happiness