We must be aware that, as far as any of the mundane dharmas are concerned—,whether money, fame, status or people—as long as there is attachment, they will give us a great deal of suffering. The bigger the attachment, the greater the pain they will give us; the pain may even go beyond the happiness that thing originally brought us.  This is certain. To stop the suffering in this mundane world, we should, first and foremost, stop our attachment.

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 4

The Buddha did say that samsara is suffering, but it doesn’t mean that hr denied the existence of joy and happiness in life, he just wanted to point out the temporary and relative nature of worldly happiness. One should not be so blinded  by such happiness as to forget the future.

~Depicted from the Seasonal Quotations of Khenpo

Laypeople very rarely have the means nor the will to drop all their worldly attachments to pursue a contemplative life. Nevertheless, if one could incorporate bodhicitta into one’s everyday activities, then Mahayana practice would not seem so incompatible with the trivial and sometimes inconsequential affairs one has to deal with on a daily basis.

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1 

Many poor people believe that lack of money is the reason for pain, and if one day they get money, there will be no pain. However, if they really become rich one day, they will find out that pain has not disappeared; on the contrary, more suffering is awaiting them.  So, a hard life is not the root cause of suffering since many people with a hard life may enjoy a happier life than rich people.

The Buddha told us that the real origin of suffering is attachment to money, people and things. There are many kinds of attachment: attachment to self is called self-grasping; attachment to external possessions, such as money, fame and fortune, is called clinging to phenomena. There will be no suffering if there is no attachment. The Buddhist sutras often talk about “letting go” as an antidote to attachment.

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series  9 

The cardinal doctrine of Buddhism is dependent arising of all phenomena, which encompasses a broad range of subjects. From the perspective of Relative Truth, it means that when there is cause, there is effect.   Life’s sorrows and joys, separations and reunions, in fact, all phenomena come with their own respective causes. Some we can see, some cannot. Only very special kind of persons can grasp the whole picture. But cause and effect always go hand in hand, never alone. No cause, no effect, and vice versa. If one is in pursuit of happiness, one must sow happiness to reap happiness. The seed of happiness is virtuous action.  To avoid suffering and misfortune, one must not give rise to their causes. The cause of suffering is doing evil.

 Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1 

What we should repudiate are not view of the non-Buddhists or the atheists but our own attachment. Once attachment is eliminated, no amount of heterodox ideas can affect us anymore. To someone who has attained realization, those ideas, no matter how extravagantly they may sound, make no difference at all. And the way to completely eradicate attachment is by developing renunciation, bodhicitta and, most importantly, the view of emptiness.  

  ~Depicted from the Seasonal Quotations of Khenpo

 Mahayana Buddhism teaches that of all the disturbing emotions, the worst of them all is hatred because the basis and starting point of Mahayana Buddhism is compassion. Hatred is the direct opposite of compassion. In Mahayana Buddhism, if you completely abandon your compassion for any being, you will have hatred in your heart. This breaks the Bodhisattva Vow from the root, and makes it impossible to arouse bodhicitta. Of all disturbing emotions, hatred is the worst. Hatred’s faults, and the sufferings it produces, are very numerous.

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series  10 

Some say that Buddhism seeks happiness only for next life and none for this life. This is not true. Buddha just asked that we should not ruin our next lives for the pursuit of pleasure of this life, nor should we destroy our future path for the easy comfort of today.    

~Depicted from the Seasonal Quotations of Khenpo

The Buddha knew very well the relationship between material wealth and man’s desires—how people’s minds change with the rise and fall of their fortune. This is why the Buddha had specifically instructed this mode of life for the Buddhists.

Other worldly disciplines such as philosophy have so far failed to answer this question fully. The general view is that nothing remains after death, so the meaning of life is to enjoy life to the fullest while it lasts even at the cost of squandering the precious lifetime, depleting massive amount of resources and destroying the natural environment. Still, happiness is beyond reach. It shows that to pursue happiness this way only leads to disappointment.

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 6