While there is no risk of being caught again, but the living beings cannot live long anyway, should we still liberate them? Yes, we should, as we can never find a place for them to live forever. Our top priority should be to release them from the immediate danger of death before all other considerations.
[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: The Right View ~ Liberating Living Beings]
Many people consider Buddhism as idealism, because everything in this world is a reflection of our mind. It is not true, although most of other religions in the west are idealism but not Buddhism. On the other hand, Buddhism is neither materialism. Although we may find Buddhism may be partial materialism or idealism, but it is neither in general. Materialism and Idealism belongs to a certain category of western philosophy, but it can not include all the human knowledge.
Buddhism believe the world is neither consist of material or immaterial, it is an illusion created by our mind.
[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: The Illusory World]
If we can perform properly every time, liberating lives can also be fully endowed with the remarkable quality of the six paramitas, even to liberate just a single life.
[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: The Right View ~ Liberating Living Beings]
If Mahayana Buddhism is against eating meat, why do some of the Tibetan practitioners eat meat? It is not because the scriptures gave them permission to do so, but for other reasons. As you all know, most of the Tibetan Plateau is unsuitable for growing vegetables and rice. In the area where it is possible to grow crops, the yield is very low. And lacking sufficient transport facilities makes it difficult to have contact with the outside world. Especially in the pastoral areas, there is only tsampa (roasted ground barley) if people do not eat meat.
[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: The Right View ~Why Vegetarian?]
There are three kinds of generous offering practiced by the bodhisattvas: fearless offering, offering of Dharma and of material items.
[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: The Right View ~ Liberating Living Beings]
Within Mahayana, Chinese Buddhism has long maintained the fine tradition of vegetarianism. At present, the majority of Chinese Buddhists is vegetarian. They mainly abide by the teachings in two Mahayana sutras: the Lankavatara Sutra and the Nirvana Sutra. In a way, being vegetarian also exemplifies the Mahayana spirit of compassion.
[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: The Right View ~Why Vegetarian?]
Many people are convinced that what they practice must be of supramundane nature. How can it not be if they have been practicing the five extraordinary preliminaries? In fact, these five preliminaries are not only supramundane in nature but also part of the Mahayana practices. The key is, notwithstanding, having what kind of perspective when you sit down to practice these preliminaries. Though the possibility of practicing solely for the benefit of this life is slim, it is quite likely to undertake these practices to avoid rebirth in the hell realm. If the motivation is not to seek liberation for the sake of all sentient beings, the practice of the five preliminaries will be considered mundane, not supramundane. In that case, it won’t be so meaningful to practice the five preliminaries after all.
[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: The Right View ~ The Three Differences]
Our life comes to a crossroads when we realize that the world is full of illusion. We can either live in this world endlessly without any further investigation—we call this “samsara”—or, if we are fed up with this illusory world, we need to change the way we see it to the Buddhist view.
The Buddhist view of this world brings us loving kindness and wisdom. With compassion and wisdom, we are able to balance our life in terms of money, relationships, marriage and everything else, and with certain kinds of practice and mind training, we can ultimately attain enlightenment.
[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: The Illusory World]
How do we go about destroying the root cause of samsara now that we have identified it? Will burning incense, doing prostrations and reciting mantras work? They may, to some extent, if performed with genuine renunciation and bodhicitta. Renunciation can help us deal with the more observable defilements while the subtle ones can be subdued by relative bodhicitta. However, the subtlest self-grasping can only be eradicated by the practice of not-self and emptiness, hence their inclusion in the four characteristics. As for impermanence and suffering, why are they part of the four characteristics? They are appointed so as to help us form an aversion to samsara and thereby stop all worldly pursuits.
[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: The Right View ~ The Four Noble Truths]
