Ignorance leads to attachment, such as clinging to external world, one’s own body, fame and gain. Without satisfying one’s desire, one will suffer. In order to satisfy one’s desire, one will engage in negative acts, such as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying, etc. All negative acts stem from attachment and ignorance.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
The mind of our teacher is luminous buddha nature. Our mind dissolves into the teacher’s mind, which also means that all our thoughts dissolve in luminous buddha nature of dharmadhatu. In the end only luminous buddha nature exists, which is in fact the realisation state of buddhas and bodhisattvas. The state of realising the Dzogchen for the first time is similar to this.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
When engaging in any act, be it killing, stealing, doing life release or practicing generosity, although we cannot perceive these acts’ existence after completing them, certain energy will be stored in our lowest level of consciousness, which is alaya consciousness. “Alaya” is sound translation of Sanskrit, it means a store house. It can be likened to a hard drive of a computer and can store lots of information.
~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
If perceiving one’s teacher and oneself are two individuals, then the minds of the two can never merge; however, the mind of our teacher is actually our own mind. The nature of our mind is not only the wisdom of our teacher, but also is the mandala of buddhas and bodhisattvas, including the mandala of the peaceful and wrathful deities.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
According to the dharma, the methods a practitioner and a commoner use to address a problem are different. However, our dharma study tends to have only literal comprehension without putting it into practice, thus we only have accumulated merit of listening to the dharma and lack actual effect of the dharma. When facing layers of grave pressure of life, we act similarly to non-Buddhists. Therefore, we need progress and develop in this respect.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Having received teachings from his teacher, Milarepa was asked by his teacher to practice on his own, thus he never saw his teacher again. Due to fervent faith in his teacher, he could attain enlightenment in his very life. Without having strong faith in one’s teacher, even should one stay with their teacher every minute, one will not necessarily receive the blessing of the teacher or attain enlightenment.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Great masters in the past had one character in common, which is not claiming how extraordinary one is, or being a reincarnation of some tulku, or being sent by Guru Rinpoche, or that one’s previous incarnation was some figure at the Buddha’s time. All great masters are broad-minded, humble and prudent. They would often claim “I don’t know” “ I cannot do it.” “I don’t have experience of realisation”, and so forth.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
One’s appearance is the manifestation of one’s mind, this illustrates that many people have obscurations, which can be detected from one’s appearance. The majority of people’s obscurations come from evil deeds committed in previous lives and this life, such as killing, having a wrong view and so forth. Shakyamuni Buddha taught many teachings which can purify obscurations. Among these methods, the Buddha repeatedly stressed to the future followers: one needs to endeavour to purify one’s obscurations: Of all the practices of generosity, the foremost is to refrain from killing, and engage in life release.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
