WORDS OF WISDOM AUTHOR: KHENPO TSULTRIM LODRO

In short, there are three cycles of life:

The first cycle – It starts before a life is formed. At this point, no sentient being of the six realms, no life exists at all. It is like the moment the Big Bang occurred, neither matter nor the concept of time and space existed. This period of absolute emptiness is the nature of our mind, also the Buddha nature, Tathāgatagarbha or the state of luminous clarity.

Then after the Big Bang, the fundamental particles were formed, and the agglomeration of these particles into electrons, atoms and molecules eventually formed the universe. Likewise, from Tathāgatagarbha and luminous clarity comes energy of life which subsequently forms life itself. More detailed descriptions of this process have been elucidated in the Vajrayana texts.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On Death And Rebirth-Understanding Death

3. Dedication

What does dedication mean? For example, there are ten people and only one of them has food. The owner of the food could just keep it for self consumption. Instead, out of compassion, the food is shared with the other nine. Dedication is similar to this sharing. The good seeds sown by the virtuous actions that people perform will bear virtuous fruit. Mahayana practitioners, unwilling to enjoy the positive karmic result by themselves alone, give the fruit to all sentient beings to share. This is what dedication connotes.

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

In the 1930s and 40s, human sacrifice as offering to the gods was still practiced in some remote areas of the world. Such inhuman act itself is already a huge delusion which can only increase, not overthrow, our ignorance.

Once there is ignorance, there is attachment—attachment to the outer world, to one’s own body, reputation, interest, etc. When failing to satisfy one’s desire, negative emotions arise and one suffers. In order to satisfy all the desires, one may resort to evil ways. Thus, all evil karma comes from attachment and ignorance.

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

The key to building happiness in life is our practice. Just as with an athlete who must train very hard in order to win the championship, or with a patient who must follow the doctor's prescription in order to recover. If we practice according to the Buddha's teachings, we can learn to deal with emotional negativities by not becoming despondent from excessive attachment nor desperate from overwhelming stress. In so doing, we can succeed in our work or business, and be very happy and carefree at the same time. In Buddhism, and in particular Ch' an, the expression "let go" is often used to describe this state of mind.

To let go does not mean to abandon. Letting go of our work is not the same as abandoning our work; letting go of wealth is not the same as rejecting wealth. To abandon is a form of escape; to let go is a method for confronting problems.

~ Depicted from ARE U READY FOR HAPPINESS : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

Simply put, death is a kind of cyclic phenomenon of life. The cyclicality is represented by the fact that rebirth will come after death and birth will eventually end in death again. Our consciousness is like an engine which can turn life on and turn it off, but people in general don’t know how this is done. Be that as it may, life can never end, even at the time of attaining Buddhahood. Granted, that’s an unsurpassed state of existence. As our practice continues to improve, we can also advance to a higher level of existence. Naturally, the phenomena of life are not the inherent nature of life. The nature of life never changes; the phenomena of life, however, undergo an endless cycle of change.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On Death And Rebirth-Understanding Death

Before one comes to this realization, the way to practice with a mind free of clinging and concepts is to conduct all practices earnestly, faithfully and whole-heartedly with the conviction of renunciation and bodhicitta. Though, for the time being, there is still certain difficulty in truly freeing the mind of attachments and concepts, as long as renunciation and boshicitta are firmly established, the true nature of phenomena will become fully evident over time. This is because the relationship between bodhicitta and realization of emptiness is one of interdependence. In other words, renunciation and bodhicitta will arise spontaneously upon realizing emptiness; emptiness shall be realized with relative ease once renunciation and bodhicitta have been generated.

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

II. The way to refute ignorance

To refute ignorance, something contradictory to it must be applied; views and methods more powerful than ignorance are also needed to accomplish the task. Ignorance cannot be overthrown without realization of emptiness, even if all the rituals are properly conducted, pure vows maintained, worldly merit accumulated and virtuous deeds committed. The practices of cultivating renunciation, such as contemplating the preciousness of human birth or impermanence, and bodhicitta are very important, but they do not conflict with ignorance and are thus unable to reject it either. Of the two kinds of bodhicitta, ultimate and relative, ultimate bodhicitta denotes realization of emptiness which can refute ignorance quite effectively, but not relative bodhicitta. This point is clearly explained in Dharmakirti’s Commentary on Valid Cognition (Pramanavarttika) and the various texts on Buddhist logic.

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

The Buddha instructed us to follow the middle way, to avoid extreme measures in any situation. We need not be resentful, disgusted, or pessimistic in life; but we should not see life as perfect either. Wealth and relationships are neither good nor bad on their own; whether they become good or bad depend on the mind. If we look upon wealth, relationships, and other worldly pursuits with equanimity, our life will be that much happier.

~ Depicted from ARE U READY FOR HAPPINESS : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

Among all the books in the world, the one that offers the best explanation of death and method to face death is Bardo Tödröl. The book has since received recognition from scholars in the West. Having obtained the relevant empowerment, one can proceed to study the text, but not before then, as the proper order for learning the Secret Mantra still needs to be observed. Nonetheless, a part of the section on the method of facing death does not require prior empowerment so that it is available for everyone to read or learn more seriously.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On Death And Rebirth-Understanding Death