To cut off desire completely, we have to rely on Buddhist practice. When we attain Buddhahood, there is no more desire. The Buddha’s compassion and infinite wisdom has already replaced all worldly desires. But before attaining Buddhahood, ordinary people still crave for things. In our practice, we must be sure to avoid the two extreme paths. One extreme is to cut off all material desires. A number of ancient religions in India place great emphasis on ascetic practice — denial of food for a long period of time, no clothing or speech, even cruel punishment to one’s body. The Buddha did not approve of these practices and in fact considered the methods, to a certain extent, to be harmful to one’s well-being. The other extreme is to give in to all our desires. We spend a lifetime working hard to fill our needs, but are still dissatisfied when it is time to leave the world. In the end, it is only resentment and anger that we bring with us. That would hardly be worth it.

~ Depicted from THE PAPER TIGER - The Tibetan Buddhist View on Happiness

Practice falls into two categories: one is a meditation retreat, not necessarily for a month or a week, just keeping a simple retreat for two or three hours a day is very good. Strictly speaking, there is no way to practice any Dharma without doing retreat or in a distracted, indolent and unfocused state. So, one or two hours retreat is a minimum when you practice. Practice cannot be accomplished with money. Liberating lives and doing good deeds can accumulate merit, but cultivating your mind has nothing to do with money. Practicing austerities, doing prostrations, and so on are parts of practice, but not the most important practice. The genuine practice is to practice with your heart.

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 9

Neutral motivation

Neutral means neither good nor bad. For example, someone invites a friend along to liberate animals, but the friend does not understand the merit and the benefit related to this activity, just goes along having no particular purpose. After the activity has ended, the friend’s participation would have resulted in a kind of neutral karma. Maybe someone will question, “Didn’t the friend also save some lives? Why was this karma neutral?” It is because the friend did exactly the same thing as everybody else but with no idea as to why it was done. That makes it neutral. Similar concept can also be found in the secular world. For instance, it is a serious crime if one intentionally kills a person, but not as much so if it happens by accident. On this, the law and the Dharma uphold the same principle.

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

On attachment to a person, one can contemplate: This person may look great now, but his or her looks will also fade in time.

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

The happiness that material enjoyment brings is limited. Yet what we want is unlimited. How is it possible to fill an infinite space with something which has a limit? Certainly not in this lifetime! Our lifespan is no more than several decades, but even if we lived billions of years, we would still fall short of satisfying ever-growing greed. In fact, the longer we live, the greater our desire and the suffering that follows. Thus, the Buddha admonished us to keep our desire in check in order to gain true happiness; if we are always chasing after material things, we will never find real happiness.

~ Depicted from THE PAPER TIGER - The Tibetan Buddhist View on Happiness

In the past, according to the majority of people’s logic and their innate way of thinking, they may have thought that as long as I have money, I must be very happy and there is no reason to be unhappy. Strongly advocated during the Age of Enlightenment, the West began to accept the idea that happiness does not depend on spirit, but rather on substantial things. Looking for happiness from one’s inner spirit was equated to searching for happiness in a place where it did not reside, in other words asking for the impossible.  Influenced by this culture, people shifted their developmental focus to amassing an abundance of external material wealth and its associated aspects.

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 8

It is stated in the scriptures that if our motivation is found to be neutral, we should rather improve than eliminate it. The reason is that the quality of being “neutral” and “wholesome” are relatively closer to each other, whereas being “wholesome” and “unwholesome” are poles apart. So while the former can be improved, the latter must be given up. Ordinarily, before we sit down to practice or meditate, we should first examine the motivation carefully. If it was found to be neutral, we should improve it. Otherwise, none of what we do can lead us to enlightenment. The resulting virtuous karma caused by a neutral motivation may be able to bring some temporal rewards, but only very meager ones.

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

Contemplation on impermanence

On our greed for money, one can contemplate this way: This person may be rich now, but who knows how the money was made? It’s also possible that this person may become poor by next month or even go to jail, which are not exaggerations at all as such stories get reported quite regularly in the news media.

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

We can ask ourselves: How do I find happiness? What is it that I would have to lose to be unhappy? If we contemplate in this way, we will find the answer — desire, if left unchecked, is boundless. Excessive desire ultimately drowns us and leads to a state of great suffering.

~ Depicted from THE PAPER TIGER - The Tibetan Buddhist View on Happiness