As a matter of fact, if there can be more tolerance and open-mindedness, we would not need to bother with expensive research because such views are common knowledge in Buddhism and free for all to use. Unfortunately, people tend to be quite arrogant some times, unwilling to accept unconventional views and rejecting all that is not seen or heard personally, or at variance with the conclusion derived directly from their own research. They will only accept a standpoint when others’ reasoning and their own are in agreement. Such obstinate and rigid attitude greatly restrains the intellectual progress of mankind.

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

So far we have discussed the imitative and the true version of practicing with a mind free of attachment and concepts. The true version refers to the way a bodhisattva, having arrived at the first ground, practices the six paramitas. Because the bodhisattva has realized the illusory nature of all phenomena, there is no attachment whatsoever to any practice of the six paramitas. But those who have not realized emptiness can only imitate the true version at best. If one does not understand the viewpoints of Madhyamaka, then not even this is practicable. When neither version is feasible, from what perspective can one approach the idea of a mind free of clinging and concepts?

For those who cannot practice either, the Buddha also pointed out a way. According to the scriptures, when practicing virtue, if it is impossible to have mind free of concepts and attachments, then at least try to be sincere and mindful. Being “mindful” means that not only the body does virtuous action but the mind also engenders proper aspiration, visualizes carefully and dedicates the merit. This would be the lowest level one can reach in any practice. If the body is doing virtuous action but the mind wanders off, the virtue so cultivated will be made superficial and brings no benefit. We must pay attention to this.

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

I. The harm of ignorance

In both Mahayana abhidharma and Sarvāstivāda’s abhidharmakosa, the term used for our negative emotions is kleśa or defilement, and different kinds of defilement have been clearly classified. Even in psychology and medicine, there are not nearly as many terms to describe the various aspects of negative emotions. However, no matter how it is classified, the origin of all defilement is ignorance.

Ignorance also means being deluded. Defilement arises because we don’t know the truth of this world and of ourselves. If the truth is known, there will not be defilement—the reason why ignorance is the origin of defilement.

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

Secondly, since we know everything is illusory, we are all in the midst of a dream. The difference is our dreams at night are generally short, whereas our dream in this world of samsara is comparatively long. When we reach the end of our lives and look back, we will find all the circumstances in life are as illusory and unreal as the dream we had the previous night. Hence, we should not grow overly attached to wealth, to relationships, etc. — things we think we can be attached to.

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

In regard to matter, many exciting breakthroughs have been achieved by science in the West. However, with respect to life itself, Western science has hardly broken any new grounds and thus failed to provide satisfactory answers to questions about life and death. Actually, the brain is analogous to the hardware and consciousness the software. Just like data in the software can be copied to different hardware, consciousness can be transplanted to another brain. That is to say, when a person’s physical body stops functioning, life still exists and can be transferred to another body, as the body is only a vehicle for the mind. This is the Buddhist view as well as that of Charles Scott Sherrington and John Carew Eccles, the two neurophysiologists and Nobel Laureates.

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

Before having realized emptiness, it is not possible to truly free mind of concepts. Then, we can just adopt an “imitative” approach to all actions, which is relatively close to but not quite the real thing. For example, after we have learned the analytical techniques of Madhyamaka, we can fully appreciate the idea that phenomena manifest and, at the same time, are devoid of intrinsic reality, like dreams. However, this is just theoretical understanding, not true realization of emptiness. Let us still use the example of liberating animals. At the time of liberating animals, or at least at the time of dedicating merit after completion of the activity, we can employ the Madhyamaka theory to discern the illusory nature of the doer, the object and the action, thereby imitate the real freedom of concepts for the mind. Though this is not true realization, it is already quite close to it and can be used to train the mindset at the initial stage.

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

Unlike greed and anger which are quite noticeable, ignorance is a latent defilement. When we are angry or being greedy, it is obvious to not only ourselves but also others because our behavior is different, whereas ignorance is hidden deep down and not easily detected. None of the wise and knowledgeable people in the world including scientists, philosophers and psychologists has yet to discover ultimate ignorance. Although various fields of study have helped us clear some delusions and revealed to us many truths about life and the world, ignorance, a defilement entrenched at the deepest level, has never been explored by either science, philosophy or religions. Moreover, as the methods provided by these disciplines are not counteractive to ignorance, they are unable to refute and end ignorance.

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

APPLYING ILLUSIONIST CONCEPT TO LIFE

Transcending the Mundane World

What does the concept of illusion have to do with our life in this world? How do we make use of it?

Firstly, even though we now know the world is an illusion, it is a very real world from the standpoint of our eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. Because of this relative reality, we have to be responsible to our society, family, and company employees; we need to build a career and provide for our family. We have to abstain from destroying and harming life, from stealing and cheating, etc. Knowing everything to be illusory, we must nonetheless distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil.

The Buddha exhorted us to live by the rules in this world, to discern between good and evil, and to be mindful of cause and effect.

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

III. The nature of death

The term “thanatology” was first penned by an American surgeon, Dr. Roswell Park, in an essay published in 1912, which eventually became a field for interdisciplinary studies. The history of this field is only a little over one hundred years. The Tibetan Buddhist text of death, Bardo Tödröl or Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo, is over a thousand years old. And Buddhist texts that deal with the subject of death have been around for 2500 years. The process of dying is clearly laid out particularly in the Kālacakra Tantra which was expounded by Buddha Sakyamuni in the year before his parinirvana when he was 80 years old.

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