Practitioners need to go with the flow in society, do whatever others do, be it fashion or trends, but abstaining from emulating the un-virtuous acts of others. The Mahayana Buddhism is rather humanistic and open. Modern buddhists need to appear as a fashionable and trendy person, but with an inner self liken to practitioners of 2500 years ago; this is a perfect combination! Buddhists need to have a mundane body and supra-mundane mind.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Despite the fact that buddhas and bodhisattvas have transcended relative truth, not having a body of flesh and body, in order to liberate us, still they manifest a body of flesh and blood. BuddhaAmitabha of the Pure Land can’t liberate us, neither does Buddha Samantabhadra; although the sambhogakaya and the nirmanakaya of buddha are sublime, they are not able to liberate us, because they can’t communicate with us. Thus a teacher in a relative sense is vital.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Death is vital for everyone, because this is the reality everyone is reluctant to face but have to face. For ordinary beings, death is a dark, unknown area, pervaded with despair, mystery, suffering and sorrow. When facing death, almost everyone feels panicked and fearful, these are all due to the misunderstanding derived from not understanding death. If having gained a correct understanding of death, then fear will be dispelled, and preparations for death can be made.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Virtue and evil are the same in terms of the scale of its karmic result. Even engaging in an insignificant, positive act will enable us to experience good health and longevity in the next five hundred lifetimes; however, committing an insignificant, negative act will enable us to experience poor health and short life span in the next five hundred lifetimes or even longer. These are due to insignificant acts leading to great results.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Although from the meditative concentration’s point of view, the heavenly beings in the form and formless realm are endowed with great capacity, the meditative concentration they abide in is mere tranquility, which is devoid of the wisdom of realisation, thus their meditative concentration has nothing to do with liberation. Among sentient beings in the three worlds and the six realms, only humans have the best chance to attain liberation. Thus being a human is fairly significant, we need to cherish our human body.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
The Buddha told his disciples: it’s clinging to any objects that will become obstacles to liberation, not the value of the clung objects. At the time of death, if a rich person can distribute his assets properly, which leaves him with no attachment to his assets, the assets will not become obstacles to his liberation. To the contrary, even if one’s assets are not abundant, if one clings to them, then the assets will become obstacles to one’s liberation.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
There are two pith instructions to tame the mind: first, to realize the nature of mind is emptiness, then to abide in the state of emptiness. As Mipham Rinpoche stated: these two pith instructions include all pith instructions.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
In our everyday life, when getting irritated and anxious, we need to stop to investigate what exactly make us upset? Our body is void of thinking, being free from the concept of happiness and unhappiness. It’s the consciousness which give rise to defilements. Then what exactly is consciousness? By reflecting as such, we might reach a state of realisation.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
The Buddha told his disciples: it’s clinging to any objects that will become obstacles to liberation, not the value of the clung objects. At the time of death, if a rich person can distribute his assets properly, which leaves him with no attachment to his assets, the assets will not become obstacles to his liberation. To the contrary, even if one’s assets are not abundant, if one clings to them, then the assets will become obstacles to one’s liberation.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
