WORDS OF WISDOM AUTHOR: KHENPO TSULTRIM LODRO

There are three main reasons sentient beings perpetuate in samsara: first, clinging to impermanence as permanence; second, seeing activities that are inherently unsatisfactory as joyful; third, mistaking a non-existent self for a truly existent self. With these three forms of attachment, good and bad karma is created. With good karma, beings take rebirth in the upper realms of the gods and human beings; with bad karma, beings take rebirth in the lower realms such as hell, unable to transcend samsara and attain liberation.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA -SUMMATION

How to learn Buddhadharma is very important. If Buddhists don’t dedicate efforts to hear, contemplate and meditate the teachings, focusing instead on the rituals such as attending pujas, tsok, fire offering and empowerment ceremonies, burning expensive incense and worshiping the deities, among others, the real meaning of learning the Dharma would still be missing even if these are all done with great sincerity. Although a properly conducted empowerment is needed and useful, absent the practice of hearing, contemplation and meditation, the Buddha’s thought and teachings will not be propagated effectively. Holding concerns for personal health, longevity, money, work, family, etc. as their ultimate goal, Buddhist followers can neither benefit from practicing the Dharma nor actualize the path to liberation. And Buddhadharma ends up losing its real core value.

~Depicted from THE HANDBOOKS' FOR LIFE JOURNEY - On The Three Poisons-How to Confront Anger

Buddha-dharma is not a philosophy to be appreciated from afar. Its wisdom is directly accessible and relevant to our problems in life. Unfortunately, most followers do not progress beyond an intellectual understanding of the Dharma, even those who have studied the five major treatises – Middle Way, logic, prajnaparamita, and other profound and significant texts. When confronted with life’s unexpected difficulties, they are lost and unable to put the teachings into practice. This is like a soldier who is armed with very sophisticated weapons; when confronted by the enemy, he is caught by surprise and does not know which weapon to use. How regrettable!

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - How to Face Suffering and Happiness-How to Face Suffering

No Buddhist, not even the followers of Theravada, will refute this theory. However, if one were to say to them indiscreetly that defilement and wisdom, sentient beings and buddha are one and the same, the great majority would be extremely puzzled—if afflictions were the same as wisdom, why should one obliterate greed or hatred when it arises? If sentient beings were buddhas, by extension, sentient beings in the hell realm would be buddhas as well. How could buddhas end up in the hell realm? If samsara were no different from nirvana, it would render the ultimate liberation that we strive to attain meaningless. Many questions of this kind would be raised since the concepts are profound and difficult to understand. But this is not the worst consequence. People in general have a lot of pride and tend to flatly reject different ideas that challenge their own. By voicing refutation of a valid Buddhist view, one runs the risk of producing negative karma of speech and unwittingly adopting a wrong view at the same time.

Therefore, in order to protect those with a propensity to follow the Buddhist sutric system or those who reject Buddhism entirely, Vajrayana cannot but take measures to prevent them from hearing some of its more advanced viewpoints prematurely. The intention is to guide them gradually to higher levels of understanding once they have the necessary capacity.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO VAJRAYANA PATH - A Compendium of the Vajrayana

We have all seen the weapon-like objects such as a sword held by Manjusri and many other bodhisattvas. These weapons are not meant for subduing any beings but destroying desire, anger and delusion. The purpose for learning and practicing Buddhadharma is to enable us to face, control and eliminate all defilement, which are also the mission and the goal of Buddhists. The criterion for measuring the quality of any practice is not the amount of mantra recited, the extent of merit accumulated, or how one fares in money terms, job, health, etc., but whether negative emotions have been reduced. For example, we can check if we feel as angry as before when others insult or bully us now. If anger remains the same, our endeavor to learn the Dharma basically loses its real purpose. Naturally, it is impossible to completely eliminate negative emotions before realization of emptiness is attained. We can only somewhat keep them under proper control.

~Depicted from THE HANDBOOK'S FOR LIFE JOURNEY- On The Three Poisons-How to Confront Anger

When desire is exhausted, anger is exhausted, delusion is ex- hausted, and all afflictions are exhausted — this is called nirvana.

What is nirvana? Liberation is nirvana. From the standpoint of Mahayana Buddhism, the three bodies of an enlightened being – dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya – and the five wisdoms are called nirvana.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - Nirvana Is True Peace

In the past, people used to think Buddhism denotes pessimism and passivity, and teaches escape from the real world. Actually, that is not the case. The Buddhist understanding of human suffering goes well beyond this view. Buddhism is not passive; on the contrary, the Buddhist view on life, suffering, and happiness is intimately connected with the real world. We can all benefit greatly if we understand some of its concepts.

~Depicted from ARE  YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - Suffering is just a Paper Tiger

The real objective of our practice is liberation, not rebirth in the higher realms. As such, we need to establish a path to liberation, with the primary requisite being renunciation. All practices that lead to liberation are based on renunciation. Renunciation is extremely important since we cannot progress to methods in subsequent stages without it. The purpose of seeing all contaminated things as suffering is to give rise to a resolution of complete renunciation.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - All Contaminated Things are Unsatisfactory

Money may have something to do with certain negative mental states, but money is no solution to those mental problems. Although medication is effective to a certain degree in alleviating the symptoms, its side effect should not be underestimated. Then, the safest and the most effective way to overcome difficulties of the mind is spiritual practice.

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