In regard to matter, many exciting breakthroughs have been achieved by science in the West. However, with respect to life itself, Western science has hardly broken any new grounds and thus failed to provide satisfactory answers to questions about life and death. Actually, the brain is analogous to the hardware and consciousness the software. Just like data in the software can be copied to different hardware, consciousness can be transplanted to another brain. That is to say, when a person’s physical body stops functioning, life still exists and can be transferred to another body, as the body is only a vehicle for the mind. This is the Buddhist view as well as that of Charles Scott Sherrington and John Carew Eccles, the two neurophysiologists and Nobel Laureates.

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

I. The harm of ignorance

In both Mahayana abhidharma and Sarvāstivāda’s abhidharmakosa, the term used for our negative emotions is kleśa or defilement, and different kinds of defilement have been clearly classified. Even in psychology and medicine, there are not nearly as many terms to describe the various aspects of negative emotions. However, no matter how it is classified, the origin of all defilement is ignorance.

Ignorance also means being deluded. Defilement arises because we don’t know the truth of this world and of ourselves. If the truth is known, there will not be defilement—the reason why ignorance is the origin of defilement.

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

If we examine the world, we find the earth is travelling at a speed of 29.79 kilometers a second; yet in our lifetime, we are not in the least bit aware of it. What the sutras stated over two thousand years ago about the microcosm and what science has newly discovered are in agreement — all phenomena arise and cease in an instant. Whatever is newly born is instantly annihilated.

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

APPLYING ILLUSIONIST CONCEPT TO LIFE

Transcending the Mundane World

What does the concept of illusion have to do with our life in this world? How do we make use of it?

Firstly, even though we now know the world is an illusion, it is a very real world from the standpoint of our eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. Because of this relative reality, we have to be responsible to our society, family, and company employees; we need to build a career and provide for our family. We have to abstain from destroying and harming life, from stealing and cheating, etc. Knowing everything to be illusory, we must nonetheless distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil.

The Buddha exhorted us to live by the rules in this world, to discern between good and evil, and to be mindful of cause and effect.

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

They are not afraid because deep down they think death is still too far away. Thus, their dismissal of fear is only temporary and unreal. Surely they will be very scared when actually facing natural disasters or their own illness, not to mention real death. So why are they not afraid of death? They are not afraid because they don’t know what death really is. That’s the only explanation.

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

III. The nature of death

The term “thanatology” was first penned by an American surgeon, Dr. Roswell Park, in an essay published in 1912, which eventually became a field for interdisciplinary studies. The history of this field is only a little over one hundred years. The Tibetan Buddhist text of death, Bardo Tödröl or Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo, is over a thousand years old. And Buddhist texts that deal with the subject of death have been around for 2500 years. The process of dying is clearly laid out particularly in the Kālacakra Tantra which was expounded by Buddha Sakyamuni in the year before his parinirvana when he was 80 years old.

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

In addition, all practitioners need to do a self-check on goal setting. An incorrect goal would be tantamount to one’s biggest inadequacy. If that happens to be the case, then one may not even be a qualified beginner of Buddhist studies at this point. If unwilling to work hard, one will forever remain a non-Buddhist. Actually, everyone has the capacity to arouse uncontrived bodhicitta if real effort can be put into the practice. Bodhicitta, as taught by Shakyamuni Buddha, is a practice exactly meant for people, perhaps like us, who are not yet beginners and have no bodhicitta.

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

Before having realized emptiness, it is not possible to truly free mind of concepts. Then, we can just adopt an “imitative” approach to all actions, which is relatively close to but not quite the real thing. For example, after we have learned the analytical techniques of Madhyamaka, we can fully appreciate the idea that phenomena manifest and, at the same time, are devoid of intrinsic reality, like dreams. However, this is just theoretical understanding, not true realization of emptiness. Let us still use the example of liberating animals. At the time of liberating animals, or at least at the time of dedicating merit after completion of the activity, we can employ the Madhyamaka theory to discern the illusory nature of the doer, the object and the action, thereby imitate the real freedom of concepts for the mind. Though this is not true realization, it is already quite close to it and can be used to train the mindset at the initial stage.

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

Many people are afraid of ghosts, and Buddhists are no exception—afraid of going to dark places at night or getting nervous when passing the cemeteries. At times like this, if one is brave enough, stop moving and observe: When I was nervous just now, what exactly is that thought of fear? After making this observation, it is likely that one comes to realize that, although the sense of fear is still present, the nature of fear is entirely unreal, empty of any substance, like bubbles. Right away, the fear toward ghosts vanishes without a trace.

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