We should refrain from thinking that all suffering and unfavourable conditions will be eliminated once we undertake dharma study. Even from the perspective of the Shravakayana, although having realised the selflessness of self, arhats still encounter undesirable conditions and experience karmic consequences.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Before engaging in main practice, we need to cultivate renunciation, which entails four practices of outer preliminary practices: preciousness of human body, the impermanence of human life, the infallibility of the law of karma, and the defects of samsara. Once having cultivated renunciation, we should not hurry to engage in practice of calm abiding and meditative concentration; rather, we need to cultivate bodhicitta. Without bodhicitta, there is no aim in our practice. Without aim, what’s the point of engaging in meditative concentration and dzogchen practice?
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
According to sutras, practitioners can be categorized into three levels. The supreme practitioners make progress daily, reaping results everyday day; the mid-level practitioners make less progress, but having breakthroughs monthly; the lesser practitioners make progress only yearly. We need to reflect on ourself, which kind of practitioners are we?
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Before attaining buddhahood, Vajrasattva made an aspiration: I vow not to attain buddhahood if I cannot enable anyone to chant my name, and supplicate to me for confessing to purify their obscurations. Given Vajrasattva had attained buddhahood, if supplicating to Vajrasattva by chanting the Vajrasattva Mantra or the Hundred-Syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva, one is bound to purify all obscurations.
~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
An accurate understanding of death enables us to be free from fear, dismayed and evasiveness when death is mentioned. This is because we have acknowledged that death is a mere cyclical process of life, it does not signify that everything ends. We need not be negative and pessimistic when facing death. If we can seize the opportunity, we can improve the level of our lives in the process of death.
~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
Before attaining buddhahood, Vajrasattva made an aspiration: I vow not to attain buddhahood if I cannot enable anyone to chant my name, and supplicate to me for confessing to purify their obscurations. Given Vajrasattva had attained buddhahood, if supplicating to Vajrasattva by chanting the Vajrasattva Mantra or the Hundred-Syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva, one is bound to purify all obscurations.
~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
