WORDS OF WISDOM AUTHOR: KHENPO TSULTRIM LODRO

The view that everything ends after a person dies is a very simple, naïve and pessimistic take on life, drawing conclusion carelessly without knowing life at the deeper level. Think about this: We should all agree that it is impossible for the body to come from another place. But if we were to deny the existence of past and future life, we would have to first eliminate the possibility that consciousness or soul comes from another place. Since our sense organs do not see the coming and going of a soul, nor can any instrument make such observation, what evidence is there to prove that soul and consciousness also end when life ends?

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On Death And Rebirth-Understanding Death

Even if we can actually see them, ghosts cannot harm us if we are not afraid of them. However, having fear in mind and thinking that they bring bad luck can, through psychological effect, lead to suffering for oneself or one’s family. Therefore, as soon as one suspects one has seen a ghost, stop and look into mind’s nature, then fear and confusion will disappear immediately, and one will not be bothered by it again.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On The Three Poisons - How to Confront Anger

Average practitioners do not reject or fear death because they know they have already achieved certain stability and have control over their practice that will enable them to face death when the time comes.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On Death And Rebirth-Understanding Death

The drum used by chöd practitioners is made out of human skull, not of wood; human bones are also used to make their wind instrument. The places that they choose to do their practice are often haunted. All these seem impervious to reason for the general public, especially the exoteric Buddhist practitioners. The intent is to infuriate the spirits by deliberately showing contempt and provoke them into retaliating with thunder, lightning, and other such terrifying signs, because practicing emptiness under great stress is more conducive to eradicating self-grasping. Granted, such practice should only be done after attaining realization. If not, there may be more harm than benefit by just imitating others.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On The Three Poisons - How to Confront Anger

2. Actual practice with mind free of clinging and concepts

Mind “free of clinging and concepts” means emptiness, the void nature of all phenomena. Most of you may not have realized emptiness, but there is no need to be anxious. Once you have generated renunciation and bodhicitta, realization of emptiness can be rather easy to accomplish after all. Conversely, trying to realize emptiness without cultivating renunciation and bodhicitta first will be like making rice out of sand. To use another analogy, it will be easier to harvest when seeds are sown in springtime. Whereas in wintertime, due to a lack of the requisite conditions, seeds sown in this season may not yield any crop no matter how much effort has been made. That is to say, when all the necessary conditions are in place and ripe for happening, things will naturally take their courses as wished.

~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind

Previously, I have never emphasized Vajrayana practices such as the Great Perfection. And personally, I don’t ever dream of one day attaining realization of the Great Perfection either. Is it because the Great Perfection is not sublime enough? No. The Great Perfection and the Great Madhyamaka are indeed highly sublime practices of Vajrayana. But my capacity is still not sufficient enough for me to tackle something so profound as renunciation and bodhicitta have yet been fully developed. It is as if someone sets out to paint a mural, but there is no wall space available. Of course, no mural either. So, a wall must be built first for a mural to be painted later on. This is how my situation is like right now. Practices such as the Great Perfection or the meditation of inner winds and channels are something I need to learn and master but have not so far. At this point, I can only yearn for the successful generation of renunciation and bodhicitta. Other Vajrayana practices, like the Great Perfection, are not what I am seeking just yet. In fact, I will not even think about them because that will not help me one bit. My only wish now is to strengthen the foundational practices, i.e., renunciation and bodhicitta. Actually, many of the general and extraordinary preliminaries are developed and practiced just for this purpose.

~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind

What about the discovery of Brownian motion under the microscope — is it real at the absolute level? Actually, there is always some wisdom more profound, an instrument more advanced and more sensitive. With the emergence of quantum mechanics, we find many of the theories in classical physics no longer work. All worldly knowledge is only valid on a relative level, not on an absolute level.

~ Depicted from ARE U READY FOR HAPPINESS : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

The same method can be applied here. For example, we are usually averse to noise. When that happens, we can also try to see what the nature of aversion is. Or, instead of resisting the noise, focus all the attention on the sound itself. By doing this, we will realize the so-called sound is only a kind of feeling produced in our ears when the external sound waves vibrate the ear drum; it is a mental phenomenon. Once the focus is on the sound itself, its empty and illusory nature will be realized.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On The Three Poisons - How to Confront Anger

There is a very convenient example in modern technology. The old motion picture film is actually made up of many reversal films; the first picture film has no connection whatsoever with the second picture film, but due to the speed at which they are rolled out (twenty-four films per second), we do not notice where one picture ends and the next begins. We mistakenly think when a person in an image is walking and talking, it is one continuous motion; we do not expect the connecting images to be formed by many separate films. An illusion is produced because our eye cannot perceive matter of a subtle nature. For scientists and philosophers, this logic should be easy to follow.

~ Depicted from ARE U READY FOR HAPPINESS : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today