Some regard Buddhism as a kind of belief. Belief also means faith. Of course faith is needed in Buddhism, but it would be oversimplified to regard Buddhism as a belief since keeping faith is only one of the aspects of Buddhism. The foundation and the priority of Buddhism are not about belief, but wisdom and compassion.
- Quote from The Right View, "Buddhism—the Definition"
For instance, a person has properly liberated animals but regrets after some time, thinking, “That was a waste of money. I shouldn’t have done it.” This regret will immediately ruin the virtuous karma resulted from all previous acts of liberating animals.
It would be reasonable to think that celestial and human beings, and even animals, can also feel certain happiness in this world. Unfortunately, this is not the case. No matter how colorful and fascinating the world appears to be, in the end all phenomena are inseparable from suffering. As the Buddha saw the whole picture, not just a part, of samsara, he came to the final conclusion after having observed the gross and subtle aspects of suffering that samsara is all suffering.
Man’s suffering is minuscule compared with that of the animals, not to mention that of the hell beings or the hungry ghosts. Yet given a choice, how many of us would want to repeat this life again? Not too many! Most people feel that this life is too hard, too tiring and has too much pressure.
- Quote from The Right View, "The Four Noble Truths—the Path Out of Samsara"
Why do the four characteristics—impermanence, suffering, not- self and emptiness—have profound impact on liberation from samsara? Because all negative karma such as killing, stealing and sexual misconduct that one commits out of greed, hatred and delusion result from not having the right understanding of these four characteristics.
- Quote from The Right View, "The Four Noble Truths—the Path Out of Samsara"
In ancient times, cities were built with protective walls. If there was only one gate, everyone would have to go through that gate to go to any household in the city. Similarly, if we cannot break through the barrier of renunciation and bodhicitta, we will not haveaccess to any genuine, profound practices like the Great Perfection, Mahamudra, Kalachakra and others. Once we pass, the doors to the various systems of practice will all open and we can choose at will to practice Pure Land, Zen, Madhyamaka, Mahamudra, or the Great Perfection.
when a karmic seed is planted in the alaya consciousness, it will yield fruit when all the right conditions come together. This fruit is also called karmic effect.
The Buddha once said that it is not so easy for an ordinary person to prove the existence of cause and effect, but not impossible. Buddhism holds the doctrine of dependent arising of all phenomena or compounded phenomena. What is dependent arising? It means that cause begets effect. All phenomena are the manifestations of dependent arising, the results of conditioned genesis. Suppose a person killed an animal. It caused great harm to that animal. How can there be no consequence for the person who had committed such grave karma? Like casually throwing a seed into the moist and warm soil, it will germinate on its own with no tending required. By the same token, in the phenomenal world, every cause must bear its own fruit with no exception.
How to differentiate between something contrived and uncontrived? For example, when you are very thirsty, you want to drink water. Drinking, in this case, is uncontrived. When you do not feel like drinking water, but drink it anyhow for reasons other than your own wish. This drinking is contrived.
The practice of virtuous actions should never be a passive one. In fact, any good action, if forced, will not be good any more as it comes not from the heart and is done merely as a formality. Therefore, it is extremely important to make everyone understand the essence, the view and the conduct of Mahayana Buddhism.
