Once a question was raised in Newsweek magazine: Money or happiness, which is more important? Shakyamuni Buddha answered this question more than 2500 years ago, saying that happiness is the most important. Money alone cannot make people satisfied, nor can one obtain happiness or freedom from it. Nonetheless, most people still think that there can be no happiness without money. To them, money is the key to happiness.

Of course, other than a very few exceptions, people who are destitute generally do not feel much happiness. But does this mean that wealthy people must be very happy? No, it certainly does not. Money really cannot buy everything!

Also stated in the Abhidharmakosha-shastra is that some children may suffer the effect of seriously negative karma that their parents accumulated. If children can suffer the consequences of their parents’ negative karma, is this not contradictory to the Buddhist teaching that one reaps what one sows and that no one can assume others’ karma?

The Abhidharmakosha-shastra explains that these children themselves already have certain negative karma. Due to the close relationship between the parents and their children, the ripening of the children’s negative karma may be expedited by the extremely evil karma the parents committed.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: On Cause and Effect

If you want to apply the Dharma in daily life, first and foremost you must have Buddhadharma in your heart. If our hearts do not have any Dharma at all, what is there to integrate into our daily lives? Then, there’s nothing to be done. Therefore, the primary thing is to have the right understanding and view, and, in order to integrate Buddhism into our daily lives, we must also generate a sense of renunciation and bodhicitta.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 7

With the four ordinary preliminary practices or the Hinayana Buddhist view, we can conclude that all compounded things are impermanent, suffering and contaminated. They are called “contaminated” since various afflictions can be produced. The investigative method of the Madhyamaka teaches us to investigate this life and the next life, as well as various other external phenomena.  The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way by Nagarjuna has twenty-seven chapters, and most of the content is an investigation of external substance, so as to understand that all phenomena are empty and to discover that the world is fundamentally an illusion that does not exist at all. Our greed and ignorance are thus undermined and will not develop.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 9: The Principles of Liberation

We must develop a firm conviction about the suffering of samsara, to the degree that we no longer harbor any desires for samsara and wholeheartedly seek liberation from it. At the same time, we must also cultivate the transcendent wisdom that is implicit in ultimate liberation. To seek liberation blindly without grasping inherent wisdom will not bring forth complete renunciation. The Four Noble Truths of the Hinayana tradition are a part of this wisdom; complete renunciation entails mastery of the Four Noble Truths.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1: The Three Differences

We should also think, “When facing hurt and insult, if I can calm down and endure it, not only will this cause other people to look at me in a different light, but it will also contribute to my inner discipline. If everyone treated me well, how would I have the chance to practice patience? Since they have created such a good opportunity for me, and helped me accumulate this positive karma, how is it that I neglect to recognize their kindness and remember to express my gratitude, but rebuke them with harsh words instead?”

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 10

In the treatise entitled Letter to a Friend (Suhrlekha), Nagarjuna uses the following analogy to describe people’s desire those who suffered leprosy, a disease caused by bacteria, feel extremely itchy and painful when the symptoms flared up. This analogy actually hints at people’s desire. We have always thought that money can buy us happiness and so we strive all the time to make more money. But the truth is that being rich often makes us even more miserable.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 6

For the practitioner who wishes to attain liberation, listening to, contemplating and practicing the Dharma should not be separated, nor should one be overemphasized at the expense of the others.

One of the first steps is to listen to and contemplate the Dharma. It is very easy for beginners to get on the wrong track since they lack knowledge and experience. Without listening to, contemplating, and knowing about the Dharma practices, we cannot attain true liberation only by offering incense, worshipping the Buddha and reciting sutras. As beginners, we should not practice until we have studied for a period of time. Then we need to practice. Hinayana precepts also stipulate that anyone who does not possesses a pith instruction is not allowed to practice because practice will not generate any result without the pith instructions.

~ Luminous Wisdom Book Series 9: The Principles of Liberation

Apparently, even non-Buddhist practitioners with some spiritual realization may still be confused about the workings of cause and effect, not to mention people without any right view or understanding. These non-Buddhist practitioners are usually well learned; some may even have acquired a certain clairvoyance regarding worldly matters. However, they jumped to conclusions based only upon what they were able to see—virtuous people taking rebirth in the lower realms—and from that formed the view that cause and effect could not exist. Then books were written and theories developed based on this conclusion, which gradually formed into a sect after attracting enough followers. This is how nihilism was established.