In degenerate times, sentient beings suffer from severe obscurations, and practitioners suffer from weak devotion in the Three Jewels and waning diligence compared to that of the Buddha’s time, thus it’s essential to lay a solid foundation of preliminary practice, which leads to the possibility to realise emptiness.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
From the perspective of material life, our era has the most abundance of material wealth in human history. We possess advanced devices and products such as airplanes, wireless, computers, etc. However, compared with ancient people, we lost freedom, which is the most precious thing in the world. We need to contemplate on this problem and make some proper choices, endeavoring to give ourself more freedom.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Some people believe that Buddhism is a religion, which entails faith. Faith is necessary in Buddhism, however, the view of Buddhism as a religion is rather simplistic, because faith is just one element of Buddhism. The foundation and focal point are not faith, rather they are wisdom and compassion
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Many people are practicing preliminary practices, prostrating several hundred times daily. When prostrating, if one can chant the mantra: om namo manjushriyé soha, namo sushriyé soha, namo uttamashriyé soha, then the merit of prostration will multiply by 10 million time. However, the preliminary practice of prostrating for 100,000 times cannot be replaced by chanting this mantra once.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Some people believe that Buddhism is a religion, which entails faith. Faith is necessary in Buddhism, however, the view of Buddhism as a religion is rather simplistic, because faith is just one element of Buddhism. The foundation and focal point are not faith, rather they are wisdom and compassion.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Arising in the morning is somewhat similar to the Buddha emanating Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya from Dharmakaya to benefit sentient beings. Thus we need to make an aspiration: “May all sentient beings attain dharmakaya, and emanate Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya from Dharmakaya to benefit sentient beings.”
~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
When seeing the happiness of other people, two types of emotions might occur: jealousy and rejoicing. Jealousy makes us unsatisfied, while rejoicing brings us happiness and allowing our merits to increase.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
For many practices, transmission is empathised, especially of the Vajrayana. What do we mean by transmission? It means since the first turning of wheel of dharma of the Buddha, the stream of dharma handed down from one generation to another is called lineage, or transmission, which is non-stop, if it’s broken, then the great blessing of the dharma will not continue. Thus, notwithstanding the existence of scriptures,without oral transmission and transmission of pith instruction, the dharma would be extinct.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
