According to the sutras, great merit and virtue may be obtained by doing good deeds on ordinary auspicious days, and this is especially so during the four festivals; doing any good deeds such as chanting, prostrations, making offerings, offering vegetarian meals for the ordained sangha, keeping precepts, and practicing compassion and bodhicitta can ensure a billion times more merit and virtue. That is to say, only chanting a mantra once on such days can help you receive the merit of chanting it a billion times on other days, and so on.

Therefore, be sure not to miss such great opportunities to do your best in doing good deeds such as eating vegetarian food, stopping killing, and releasing lives, which are all very important.

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 3

How can a person who has practiced virtue the entire life be reborn in the lower realms? Well, although the person may have been virtuous throughout this life, we do not know anything about this person’s previous lives. Maybe the person has been virtuous in this as well as the last two lifetimes, but it may not be so anymore if we could go back even further. Some negative karma might have been committed many lifetimes ago. From the perspective of the three types of immutable karma, virtuous karma that the person has committed in this life happens to ripen not in the current or the next life, but in the yet known future lives. That is, it may not come to fruition until perhaps hundreds or even thousands of years later.

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1

Actually, sharing is the greatest source of happiness.  If we know how to share, no matter how little the trifle is, we feel joy and happiness in the act of sharing. In this way, relationships between people become more intimate. If everyone throughout society had learned to share, most of the tragedies in human history could have been averted. Unfortunately, we believe that all good things should only be ours alone and should not belong to others.

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series  8

As stated in the sutras, “Existence in the human realm is rare, and all is impermanent.” Most of you here are already in your 30s and 40s. The remaining days, a few more decades at the most, are really not that long and will soon pass by before you know it. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee the opportunity to practice will present itself again in the next life if you fail to seize it this time. So the point is to lay the necessary foundation now as the stepping-stones leading to a better start for the next life.

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

The Buddha said that the nature of samsara is suffering, but he did not repudiate totally the idea that there is relative happiness in samsara either. The Buddha often said that one can enjoy the karmic reward of celestial beings and humans if one refrains from killing, stealing, cheating, etc. and engages in virtuous actions as much as possible. The blessed reward of celestial beings and humans signify relative happiness, not suffering, in samsara. However, such happiness is only on the surface, temporary and relative; it’s neither lasting nor ultimate happiness. This is why the Buddha exhorted us on many occasions to be mentally prepared so that we can garner enough courage to face every phase of life.

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

Everyone wishes to have a happy life, including animals. But many are unhappy, and their unhappiness comes mainly from a causal relation of the mind. When we wish to own more material things, such desire will drive us to give more time and energy to fulfill that wish, resulting in bigger pressure, busier pace, less free time in life and eventually depriving us of any sense of happiness. Although the original intention of desire is to gain happiness for ourselves, it ends up destroying our happiness. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to properly manage our desire.

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

Je Tsongkhapa mentioned in The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment that bodhicitta and the mind of renunciation are very important, but that depending on these alone would not overcome ignorance. In the end, we still need the view of emptiness. This is like going to the doctor for treatment of an illness—the key to curing the illness depends on whether or not its root cause is understood. If not, it is not possible to give the right prescription. Similarly, the reason why we are not liberated (from samsara), not at ease and not free, is not mere coincidence or something that has happened without any cause. It is also not due to the will of an omnipotent God. The root cause indeed originates from attachment. 

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 10

When H. H. Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche gave the teaching of the Great Perfection, he requested that all participants must complete the five preliminary practices beforehand or no attendance would be allowed. That certainly gave pressure to many who subsequently scrambled to complete in time. Of course, if completion means only meeting the requirement of finishing 100000 mantra recitations without generating the corresponding aspiration or actions, it will do nothing for the inner self but a show of formality. Hence, it is most important to take a systematic approach to dharma practice and be mindful at all times of pure motivation.

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

I met some lay practitioners who still had not yet completed the very basic practices long after taking refuge This is terrible and very disappointing. The reason for that is primarily a lack of motivation, which leads to practice at a snail’s pace or sometimes even withdrawal to a complete stop.   

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