Undoubtedly, the result of the practice will be different for people with religious belief and those without. However, this is not a problem. We can achieve our goals with these mind practices — whether we want to attain Buddhahood and benefit all sentient beings, realize self-liberation, or simply alleviate stress, improve the quality of our life, and live a happier and more meaningful life.
~ Depicted from THE PAPER TIGER - The Tibetan Buddhist View on Happiness
Why do we have to start with the smallest bit of hatred? Everything is accomplished sequentially—first the easy levels then the difficult ones. When we confront small amounts of hatred successfully, we gain confidence and are really satisfied. As the power we gather from our practices grows stronger, when we have to face more substantial degrees of hatred it will be easier to handle. On the other hand, if we tried to conquer a whole mass of hatred from the beginning, it would be easy to fail, and if we utterly failed the first time, we would then lose confidence and our interest in practicing would dwindle.
~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 10
However, for those seeking enlightenment, this should not be the motivation for virtuous actions. Nowadays many lay practitioners make it a habit to chant Buddha’s name, burn incense, do prostrations and so forth everyday. But please ask yourselves honestly why you do all these. Is it to gain health and longevity for this or next life, and to make sure not going to the hell realm? If so, nothing that you do will ever free you from samsara, not if you practice for one hundred, one thousand, or even ten thousand years. Good karma resulted from this kind of motivation cannot be made the cause of liberation. Neither can it yield the fruit of liberation when matured. To practice with such intentions will not result in much virtuous karma other than some temporal benefits like health and long life, or avoiding rebirth in the hell realm.
~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind
The specifics on how to meditate on impermanence according to Miphom Rinpoche’s teaching can be found in the discourse on the Four Dharma Seals in the book series Wisdom Light. There is also a clear explanation in the Theravada teachings on how to meditate on the impurity of the body. At the beginning, you may be unwilling and tend to resist these practices. But you must convince yourself to undertake these practices in order to take control of your own mind.
~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On The Three Poisons - How to Handle Desire"
The Buddha gave us many methods for cultivating the mind. Whether we believe in the Buddha or not, the mind practices are important to all of us. They can also be practiced by anyone.
~ Depicted from THE PAPER TIGER - The Tibetan Buddhist View on Happiness
We never believe, however, that this world is arising and ceasing momentarily but assume time runs through the past and future. We consider that getting off work and going home are two different things. We never think that the only time we have is one ten thousandth of a second, and neither do we believe that this world is only one ten thousandth of a second. The reason we are not able to observe this with our naked eyes is because the arising and ceasing of objects is extremely fast.
We also cannot gather the past, present and future into the same time and the same place. If that happened, our concept of time would be mistaken. So we live in a dream-like world.
Buddhism believes the whole world is a dream-like bubble. This is a very sound, reasonable, and scientific view toward the world and really has nothing to do with religion or faith.
~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 8
The law of cause and effect works on infallible principles. For example, seeds of rice will yield only rice, not barley. Similarly, if a practice is not what leads to enlightenment, how can it yield the fruit of such? Many people think that if they regularly read scriptures such as the Diamond Sutra, the Thirty-Five Buddhas Repentance Ritual, the Practices and Vows of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, the Heart Sutra, etc., they are no doubt Buddhist practitioners. Actually, that may not necessarily be the case. While recitation of sutras is definitely a good thing to do, and the Buddha also praised its merit, motivation still matters greatly. If the motivation is not right, all will be wrong, and vice versa. That is, one can never do wrong with the right kind of motivation.
~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind
The master of happiness and suffering is not god but our mind. Once you think this through, you can be happy all the time. By then, a broken love affair or divorce won’t matter so much anymore; some may even feel more carefree and relaxed as a result.
~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On The Three Poisons - How to Handle Desire"
Meditative absorption or concentration can be practiced with or without religious belief, just as yoga may or may not be associated with any religion. Yoga is simply a practice that leads to good health. Likewise, meditation can, by regulating our mentality, bring happiness and cure depression.
~ Depicted from THE PAPER TIGER - The Tibetan Buddhist View on Happiness
