Without practice or mind training, we cannot be sure of attaining liberation. For instance, over the several decades in our lifetime, we do not in general have to worry about our livelihood; as long as we are willing to work, it is more or less guaranteed. However, death, this uninvited guest, comes when we least expect it. At the critical moment, we are not at all prepared to confront death or transform it into the path. Invariably, we are helpless when death arrives, so the question of birth, aging, illness, and death is a more important one than existence. If we cannot address this problem properly, it is more frightening than the struggle to stay alive; if we can come to terms with the problem in the correct way, it will be more meaningful than solving our livelihood. Therefore, practice is extremely important.

~ Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS FOR DHARMA - The Importance of Practice

As we breathe out during meditation, visualize our happiness and the causes of this happiness – the virtuous actions and merits of the past, present, and future – transformed into a white gaseous substance which is then dissolved into the minds and bodies of all sentient beings. Visualize all sentient beings receiving this happiness and its causes, and thus being free from suffering.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS -How to Face Suffering and Happiness-How to Face Happiness

Nowadays, many lay people proclaim themselves to be students of the Buddha. But what of the Buddha have they learned? Most lay practitioners, ranging from intellectuals and business people down to the old ladies in the villages, practice the Dharma as a way of cultivating worldly blessings. Their motivation to practice, take refuge, and undertake the five precepts is to obtain good health, longevity, a smooth career, successful business, and so on for themselves, and a chance to enter a good university or get a promising job for their children. Are they following the way of the Buddha? The Buddha never did any of these. We all know that after the Buddha aroused bodhicitta, he never once sought worldly benefit for himself during the incalculable eons of three asamkhyeya kalpas. This mode of “learning the way of the Buddha” conforms more to learning the Dharma. The meaning of the Sanskrit word dharma encompasses all mundane and supramundane phenomena. In the context of practicing the right Dharma, dharma denotes an ability to deliver sentient beings from all suffering, and can be translated literally as “that which upholds.” It is in accord with the meaning of dharma if people practicing the Vehicle of Human and Celestial Beings enjoy the resulting blessings and take rebirth in the higher realms. Thus, undertaking virtuous deeds for the purpose of obtaining worldly benefits is not considered learning the Buddha’s way but learning the Dharma. Today, many self-proclaimed Buddhists maintain this kind of motivation.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO THE VAJRAYANA PATH - Vajra Master and Empowerment

It is best that busy people today take up the practice of Dzogchen. Even though Dzogchen is for people of superior capacity, we can still try to elevate ourselves to that level, and the way to do that is by practicing the preliminaries. Through hearing and contemplating the Dharma, and the practice of the preliminaries, an ordinary person who knows nothing about karma, let alone renunciation and bodhicitta, can also turn into someone of superior capacity. A person who has cultivated renunciation and bodhicitta after completing the preliminaries and developed great faith in tantra is said to have superior capacity. Such a person has a chance of succeeding in the Dzogchen practice. Whether we can be someone of superior capacity is all up to us. However, to practice Dzogchen prematurely would not only fail to bring any benefit but also run the risk of losing one’s faith in the practice. Therefore, make effort to practice the preliminaries first.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO THE VAJRAYANA PATH - The Completion Stage —the skillful means to realize emptiness

People think that desire motivates growth and development of mankind, a point that is not rejected by Buddhism either. It is said in the Mahayana scriptures that there must be self-grasping as great as Mount Sumeru in order to attain Buddhahood. Normally, self-grasping is condemned in Buddhism because it can cause greed, anger and delusion to arise. But here, it becomes the impetus to seek liberation; to certain extent, this is also a kind of desire. When desire to attain Buddhahood is absent, aspiration to learn Buddhadharm, to achieve enlightenment and to benefit sentient beings will not happen either. Genuine Dharma practice is a big, demanding and time consuming project that needs sufficient courage and drive to achieve its goal, and the source of this courage is the desire to attain Buddhahood. Arhats, lacking such desire, do not have the motivation to reach Buddhahood and hence seek only liberation for themselves.

Desire can be good or bad. Good desire is a driving force for Dharma practice and gaining enlightenment. Worldly desire, if unrestrained, can ruin a person.

~Depicted from THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE'S JOURNEY- On The Three Poisons-How to Handle Desire

All yidam practices, whether the deity is peaceful or wrathful, involve the generation stage. One cannot do deity practice without knowing how to practice the generation stage. To properly practice the generation stage in a retreat, one should first complete all the preliminaries, also pay particular attention to the process—there are many complicated requirements regarding the time, place, format of the retreat, and the time and format of ending the retreat, and so on. We don’t need to know the details for the time being, as many people have not yet undertaken the preliminary practice; even if some people have completed the preliminaries once, the quality of the practice is still less than satisfactory. However, the method of visualization is very important. If one is unable to visualize clearly, the entire result of practice will be adversely affected. The preliminary practices, such as the ones for taking refuge, Vajrasattva, and Guru Yoga, also entail the practice of the generation stage. Therefore, it is necessary to briefly explain this practice.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO VAJRAYANA PATH -The Generation Stage

A person without renunciation only seeks satisfaction in this lifetime, and rebirth in the human or god realm; apart from being content with his lot in life, and getting by, he does not have a loftier goal. A person with renunciation may occasionally think the same way or enjoy good food, fine clothes, and a nice home. However, deep inside, he knows: this is not the purpose of my existence, merely a temporary lifestyle and means to an end which may or may not be necessary—my ultimate goal is to attain liberation. This way of thinking is basically considered renunciation. To sum up, a Vajrayana practitioner must first generate a heart of renunciation.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO VAJRAYANA PATH - Entering the Vajrayana Path

First of all, we should know that to encounter the teaching on emptiness is not something to be taken for granted. Hearing it plants the seed for realization of emptiness that is not only indestructible but will also come to fruition in the near future. It is stated in the Four Hundred Verse Treatise by Aryadeva: Most sentient beings do not have the chance to hear the profound teaching on emptiness due to insufficient merit. Even if they do, most are unable to generate faith in or have reasonable doubt about the empty nature of phenomena, having little merit and inferior capacity or being negatively influenced by the surrounding environment and their social background. Anyone who can muster even the slightest doubt about the plausibility of all phenomena being empty of self-nature will hence have the means to cease samsara in the end.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW -The Two Truths—the Key to Unlocking Madhyamaka

In today’s world, one is basically unable to survive without money and the Buddha also deemed reasonable means for living justified. What he requested is that under normal circumstances one should live a simpler and modest life. There is really no need for fancy stuff as long as one stays in a livable condition. But that is not to say that one must eat lousy food, wear old clothes, or live in a run-down place. The Buddha also said that it is not necessary to live too modestly if one can afford a comfortable life with relative ease, thanks to good karma from the past life. To live a simple life, as opposed to a luxurious one, means less energy need be spent on acquiring material wealth and hence more time and attention for really meaningful matters. This is the way the Buddha told us to live.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Way of Living and the Meaning of Life