3. Dedication

What does dedication mean? For example, there are ten people and only one of them has food. The owner of the food could just keep it for self consumption. Instead, out of compassion, the food is shared with the other nine. Dedication is similar to this sharing. The good seeds sown by the virtuous actions that people perform will bear virtuous fruit. Mahayana practitioners, unwilling to enjoy the positive karmic result by themselves alone, give the fruit to all sentient beings to share. This is what dedication connotes.

~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind

In the 1930s and 40s, human sacrifice as offering to the gods was still practiced in some remote areas of the world. Such inhuman act itself is already a huge delusion which can only increase, not overthrow, our ignorance.

Once there is ignorance, there is attachment—attachment to the outer world, to one’s own body, reputation, interest, etc. When failing to satisfy one’s desire, negative emotions arise and one suffers. In order to satisfy all the desires, one may resort to evil ways. Thus, all evil karma comes from attachment and ignorance.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On The Three Poisons - How to Refute Ignorance

Of course, lay people do not have to abstain from desire. The Buddha did not believe it is wrong to have a normal relationship, so long as it does not bring harm to oneself. However, we should understand relationships are also illusory like a dream; we should not just plunge ourselves unduly into a relationship — without proper judgment, we only end up in misery.

A lot of lay people feel unbearable pain when they encounter problems in personal relationships mainly because of their over attachment.

~ Depicted from ARE U READY FOR HAPPINESS : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

Simply put, death is a kind of cyclic phenomenon of life. The cyclicality is represented by the fact that rebirth will come after death and birth will eventually end in death again. Our consciousness is like an engine which can turn life on and turn it off, but people in general don’t know how this is done. Be that as it may, life can never end, even at the time of attaining Buddhahood. Granted, that’s an unsurpassed state of existence. As our practice continues to improve, we can also advance to a higher level of existence. Naturally, the phenomena of life are not the inherent nature of life. The nature of life never changes; the phenomena of life, however, undergo an endless cycle of change.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On Death And Rebirth-Understanding Death

Before one comes to this realization, the way to practice with a mind free of clinging and concepts is to conduct all practices earnestly, faithfully and whole-heartedly with the conviction of renunciation and bodhicitta. Though, for the time being, there is still certain difficulty in truly freeing the mind of attachments and concepts, as long as renunciation and boshicitta are firmly established, the true nature of phenomena will become fully evident over time. This is because the relationship between bodhicitta and realization of emptiness is one of interdependence. In other words, renunciation and bodhicitta will arise spontaneously upon realizing emptiness; emptiness shall be realized with relative ease once renunciation and bodhicitta have been generated.

~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind

India at the time of the Buddha had a plethora of religions and myriads of views. Some religions believed the world is controlled and ruled by Brahma, one of the celestial beings. If Brahma is happy, we’ll all be saved; if not, we’ll go to hell. In order to worship Brahma, people killed all sorts of animals as offering to him. This is ignorance.

Buddhism holds that Brahma does not rule the world; he is but one of the celestial beings in the six realms of samsara. As such, he is still bound by karma, has not gained liberation, may fall and suffer, and is certainly not omnipotent. Even if we make offerings to please him, he cannot help us escape cyclic existence; moreover, the killing of animals keeps us further entrenched in samsara.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On The Three Poisons - How to Refute Ignorance

The Buddha instructed us to follow the middle way, to avoid extreme measures in any situation. We need not be resentful, disgusted, or pessimistic in life; but we should not see life as perfect either. Wealth and relationships are neither good nor bad on their own; whether they become good or bad depend on the mind. If we look upon wealth, relationships, and other worldly pursuits with equanimity, our life will be that much happier.

~ Depicted from ARE U READY FOR HAPPINESS : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

Among all the books in the world, the one that offers the best explanation of death and method to face death is Bardo Tödröl. The book has since received recognition from scholars in the West. Having obtained the relevant empowerment, one can proceed to study the text, but not before then, as the proper order for learning the Secret Mantra still needs to be observed. Nonetheless, a part of the section on the method of facing death does not require prior empowerment so that it is available for everyone to read or learn more seriously.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On Death And Rebirth-Understanding Death

To attain liberation from the suffering of samsara, one must succeed in realization of emptiness being the true nature of all phenomena,regardless of its apparent difficulty. One needs to overcome this last hurdle, renunciation and bodhicitta being the first two, before going further on the path to liberation.Once the first two are fully generated, realizing emptiness will come next. Without the latter, liberation would still be beyond reach even with renunciation and bodhicitta completely aroused. There is just no way to get around this. So ultimately, one must attain realization that all phenomena are emptiness.

~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind