Dharma does not reject material wealth, rather, it opposes living for a material life only. A person who is a renunciate can work and earn money, but he works only in order to survive. His ultimate goal is liberation. No matter what you do, remind yourself of this. In this way, renunciation can be integrated into one's life. There is no conflict between renunciation and our everyday life.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
All kinds of pain and suffering in life have their causes, but the source of all causes is our own attachment. The more people focus on monetary success, the more suffering and less happiness they will experience. Under the premise of not giving up, if we can let go of unnecessary attachments, not only will it not hinder our career, often it will unexpectedly make our career more successful and allow us to live with more freedom, joy, and happiness. (heidi)
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Some Buddhists and some followers of other religions like going on about supernatural powers or spiritual attainments, this is not the focus of Buddhism. Despite the fact that Buddhism doesn’t refute supernatural power, neither does Buddhism pursuit it. What Buddhism promotes most is how to cultivate loving kindness, how to develop wisdom and how to learn to contribute, etc.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
The antidote of greed is renunciation. Generating renunciation will eliminate greed or keep it at bay; the antidote of selfishness is bodhicitta. Generating bodhicitta will reduce and eliminate selfishness; the antidote of attachment is to realise emptiness. Once realising emptiness, all problems will be solved, such as greed, selfishness, attachment, etc. Thus it’s vital to realise emptiness.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
There are two ways to realise Dzogchen: one is to listen to dharma extensively, then to accumulate immense merits by engaging in the practice of cultivating renunciation and bodhicitta, the practice of mandala offering and embarking on the path of bodhisattvas. When accumulation of merit rises to a certain level, one can realise emptiness; another way is to rely on the qualified master’s blessing. The premise to receive such blessing is to have devotion. The stronger the devotion, the more blessing one can receive.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
It’s stressed in shastras that we need to rely on the dharma, rather than the person. Which means in the course of dharma study and research, we need to have conviction and rely on the authentic dharma or truth, rather than rely on the person’s fame, status, or power. We need to analyze if this person’s words are in accordance with the dharma and the truth, if the answer is yes, then we can trust this person’s words. Otherwise, regardless how famed a person is, we should not follow this person’s words blindly.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
There are two pith instructions to tame the mind: first, to realize the nature of mind is emptiness, then to abide in the state of emptiness. As Mipham Rinpoche stated: these two pith instructions include all pith instructions.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
What does “preliminary practice” of Tibetan Buddhism mean? It means preparatory practice. Despite the fact that ultimately we need to attain the wisdom of emptiness, without laying a solid foundation of cultivating renunciation and bodhicitta, we are not able to realise emptiness.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
Before realising the truth of reality, in the process of undertaking the preliminary practice, it’s indispensable for one to cultivate devotion to the dharma, the lineage masters and the Great Perfection doctrine. The preliminary practice can be tedious, without sufficient motivation, one tends to give up prematurely. This is the reason why some people cannot be persistent in their preliminary practice.
~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES
