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To summarize, whether we choose to practice or not, it is essential to all of us regardless of our background.

Our focus hereon is the practice, not burning incense, prostrating to the buddhas, or reciting the sutras. If we read Diamond Sutra in the morning and KŞitigarbhasūtra in the evening, this constitutes recitation, not practice. Although reciting the sutras can contribute to the accumulation of merit and help the practice, it is not true practice.

What constitutes a true practice? It is contemplation on precious human birth, impermanence of life, and the other preliminaries. This discussion on the practice of the Four Dharma Seals is based on the teaching of Mipham Rinpoche, but overall, it is training in renunciation and bodhicitta, and gaining realization of emptiness of self through practices in Madhyamaka and Dzogchen.

~ Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA : The Importance of Practice

There is a story in Introduction to the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara): Once in a kingdom there was a very good fortune teller. He told the king it would rain seven days later and the rain water would be toxic. Whoever drank the water would become insane. After hearing this, the king covered his well but didn’t let others know. Seven days later, it rained as prophesized. Everyone in the kingdom drank the rain water and lost their minds except the king and a few people around him. As only these few were not affected, all the others turned around to accuse them of being mad. The situation became so unbearable that the king finally gave in, drank the rain water and became crazy like all the others.

This is what our world is like today. The seven billion people in the world all follow more or less the same worldview and outlook on life. If anyone were to have a different point of view, many would rush to tag him or her as being abnormal or mental. But in fact we are the ones who are afflicted. When all the people have the same affliction, this mental condition becomes a standard by which others are judged. This is the case with all the rules in the human world since time immemorial. Because Sakyamuni Buddha broke the rule, many people cannot comprehend and thus accuse Buddhism of being misinformed, passive and pessimistic. How and why it comes to this, the story is an indication.

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