What does true peace mean? After liberation, there is genuine freedom from the three types of suffering mentioned before; the seeds of the three types of suffering and their designations also cease to be. This pure and everlasting happiness is true peace. It is not the happiness ordinary people refer to; rather, happiness is just freedom from suffering that arises from contaminated actions. Because it is pure, it is deemed “true peace.”

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

Meditative concentration is not only important to the management and strategic direction of a company, but also invaluable in promoting the mental well-being of corporate leaders and the employees. Without mental concentration or focus, how do business executives cope with all their social obligations? How do they dissolve the stress they are under? What about suffering from feeling empty and restless, trouble with insomnia and depression, and inefficiency? One can imagine how difficult it is to make accurate decisions under these circumstances. Meditation practice can help ameliorate, even eliminate, these problems. Money, which we normally place such importance on, is of no use to us at this time.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - Buddhism and the Business World – Six Standards in a Corporate Culture

It is best that busy people today take up the practice of Dzogchen. Even though Dzogchen is for people of superior capacity, we can still try to elevate ourselves to that level, and the way to do that is by practicing the preliminaries. Through hearing and contemplating the Dharma, and the practice of the preliminaries, an ordinary person who knows nothing about karma, let alone renunciation and bodhicitta, can also turn into someone of superior capacity. A person who has cultivated renunciation and bodhicitta after completing the preliminaries and developed great faith in tantra is said to have superior capacity. Such a person has a chance of succeeding in the Dzogchen practice. Whether we can be someone of superior capacity is all up to us. However, to practice Dzogchen prematurely would not only fail to bring any benefit but also run the risk of losing one’s faith in the practice. Therefore, make effort to practice the preliminaries first.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO VAJRAYANA PATH - The Completion Stage —the skillful means to realize emptiness

The minimum goal we should set for ourselves of this life is to enter the bodhisattva’s path of accumulation, which is the first step, a must, to start the journey of dharma practice. What then is the primary factor leading to the path of accumulation? It is genuine bodhicitta. 

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

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'S FOR LIFE JOURNEY - On The Three Poisons-How to Handle Desire

If one day we lose possession of our luxury car and cannot afford to buy expensive clothing, or if we discover that our neighbor has a better house and car, we will begin to suffer. Even though we still have clothes to wear and do not lack for food or shelter, and even though our non-discriminating consciousness is contented, our discriminating consciousness feels ashamed and inferior to others. It’s obvious that this feeling is entirely created by the sixth consciousness.

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

There are ten kinds of inner winds—five root winds and five branch winds. We cannot sense some of the inner winds, but they do exist. In relative truth, these winds can sustain our body. If something goes wrong with the winds or they are lost, our body will be affected to different degrees.

Tantra has discussed many signs of death, of which some appear physically, some in dreams, and others emotionally.

The reason for the different signs is this: when death is near, the first problem is the gradual weakening of the winds until it comes to a complete stop; we usually don’t feel it, but because winds and mind are closely related, problems will begin to show up in some parts of the body, in dreams, or with our emotions. Although the time remaining until actual death may be long or short, these are all signs of death.

Inner winds at the deep level means movement of consciousness. Although there is no obvious movement in alaya consciousness, the mind which is born of alaya consciousness is subject to fluctuations—the arising, continuum, and ceasing of mind consciousness are also winds.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO VAJRAYANA PATH - The Completion Stage —the skillful means to realize emptiness

The key for a doctor to be effective in treating a patient lies in whether the doctor knows the cause of the illness so that he or she can prescribe the right treatment. By the same token, the root of our samsaric existence and not being free is not a coincidence or without cause and condition. It is certainly not ruled by the Omnipotent but by attachment.

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

As for the rest of the practitioners, some seek their own liberation. Although we all like to claim to be Mahayana practitioners, in reality, many of us only practice to liberate ourselves. Things like practicing the preliminaries, liberating animals, burning incense, and performing prostrations are all done for the purpose of accumulating merit for ourselves. These activities are not much different from working or handling family affairs: working is for our own living, not others’; practicing the five preliminaries and listening to teachings are for our own liberation, not others’ either. Everything is done for our own sake.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO THE VAJRAYANA PATH -Vajra Master and Empowerment