Shakyamuni Buddha taught us: birth, old age, illness and death are the natural law and nobody can escape from it. Attachment is the culprit to confront these suffering. Having attachment is bound to lead to suffering. How to face up with suffering is the most important task of life. Buddhism teaches us that the best way to confront this suffering is to let go of it.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
There are two ways to realise Dzogchen: one is to listen to dharma extensively, then to accumulate immense merits by engaging in the practice of cultivating renunciation and bodhicitta, the practice of mandala offering and embarking on the path of bodhisattvas. When accumulation of merit rises to a certain level, one can realise emptiness; another way is to rely on the qualified master’s blessing. The premise to receive such blessing is to have devotion. The stronger the devotion, the more blessing one can receive.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
The antidote of greed is renunciation. Generating renunciation will eliminate greed or keep it at bay; the antidote of selfishness is bodhicitta. Generating bodhicitta will reduce and eliminate selfishness; the antidote of attachment is to realise emptiness. Once realising emptiness, all problems will be solved, such as greed, selfishness, attachment, etc. Thus it’s vital to realise emptiness.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
According to Buddhism, the cause of sentient being’s cyclic existence doesn’t lie in the body, rather, it lies in karma. If karma exists, cyclic existence persists even if the body perishes. Because our alaya consciousness has lots of previous habitual patterns, when these habitual patterns ripen, the body comes into being. We can come to a conclusion that all phenomena is the by-product of alaya consciousness, be it a mountain, river, field, the sun, the moon, the stars or the body of sentient beings.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
The practice of developing stage and completion stage entails almost all tantric practices. The practice of developing stage will eradicate our impure perception; while the practice of completion stage is to eradicate all our attachment; both of these two methods have a swift effect.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
As the sutra says: “The essence of all phenomena is life.” Of all living beings including humans, nothing is more important and precious than life. If bestowing life to others, one bestows all happiness to others.
~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
Buddhists can have many teachers, including the root teacher, however we need to acknowledge there are mere guides down a road, it’s oneself who walks the road. If a teacher fails to guide us down the road and a student fails to walk the road, then it’s both the teacher and the student failing on the path of practice.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Supernatural powers can enable one to propagate the dharma and benefit sentient beings, so can they enable one to engage in negative acts. One who attained supernatural powers through accomplishing the Four dhyanas will not commit negative acts, because they’ve subdued desire and defilements of the desire realm. Whereas the supernatural power attained by the blessing of ghosts and spirits are rather shaky. Therefore, we don’t pursue and admire supernatural powers, nor do we refute or refuse them.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
