We have all watched on Animal World (film series) how many lives some carnivores need to eat within a 24-hour period. For example, the blue whale, the largest known animal species in the world, can eat up to four tons of krill each day during the feeding season. And these are just one day’s provisions. A life eaten is a life taken and a negative karma fully committed. Over its entire life, the blue whale never once would chant the Buddha’s name or practice virtue. If it lives to be a hundred, it will have committed such negative karma for one hundred years. Can you imagine what will happen to it in its next life?

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - Why Vegetarian ? 

As laypersons, you all have varied duties and at times tedious things to deal with everyday. But there are twenty four hours in a day. To spend one hour each morning and evening to contemplate the questions about samsara and leave the remaining twenty two hours for other activities should be a feasible arrangement, I would think. Even more importantly, besides having the right view, practitioners need to be able to practice. Already one needs extremely good fortune to hear the Dharma and develop faith in the Buddha, particularly so in this modern age. But absent the actual practice, no amount of Buddhist knowledge can help solve any problem of life. And even if it does help finally, it will be after a long, long time. Therefore, either for others’ or our own sake, we should start our practice sooner rather than some time later.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Four Noble Truths—the Path Out of Samsara

Most lives will stay in the intermediate state for forty nine days and then be reborn as animals, humans, or other sentient beings depending on their past causes and conditions. Hence, death itself is not to be feared the most. In death, all the pain and fear felt while alive are all gone, like being asleep or unconscious, so it is not worth worrying about. The most terrifying is, however, if evil karma is committed in this life, then rebirth in the three lower realms of animals, hungry ghosts and hell may be likely for the next life. Therefore, even for the sake of future life, one should make an effort now to hear, contemplate and meditate on the Dharma and accumulate merit.

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

Sakyamuni Buddha also indicated: If a monastic does not have greed and can easily, without much effort, come into ownership of a lavish piece of clothing worth 100,000 Kārshāpanas (the ancient Indian coin, about 8.8 grams of silver in weight, roughly 30 RMB in current value), the Buddha would also allow the monastic to wear the apparel. Can you imagine what kind of clothing it is?

In other words, a Buddhist practitioner need not necessarily eat poorly and dress poorly, or think he or she must refrain from using the good things in life. This would also be a form of attachment. The main point is not to develop greed for these things.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - The Practice of Suffering

How do we go about destroying the root cause of samsara now that we have identified it? Will burning incense, doing prostrations and reciting mantras work? They may, to some extent, if performed with genuine renunciation and bodhicitta. Renunciation can help us deal with the more obvious defilements while the subtle ones can be subdued by relative bodhicitta. However, the subtlest self-grasping can only be eradicated by the practice of not-self and emptiness, hence their inclusion in the four characteristics. As for impermanence and suffering, why are they part of the four characteristics? They are appointed so as to help us form an aversion to samsara and thereby stop all worldly pursuits.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Four Noble Truths—the Path Out of Samsara

Liberating living beings can also prevent some evil karma. Take the example of freeing one fish. First, if the fish vendor sells the fish to a restaurant, he will have committed karma of killing that fish. By buying the fish from the vendor, we stop that from happening. Second, if we do not buy the fish, the cook at the restaurant will kill it. We prevent the cook from committing that karma with our purchase of the fish. Third, the customers eating the fish are also guilty of killing. By buying the fish, we prevent karma of killing for the third time. As the fisherman would not know at the time of catching the fish if it was to be liberated or killed, his evil karma, if any, may not be prevented by our purchase. But the other three can all be avoided. When liberating beings, to make every endeavor not to hurt them as well as the feelings of other people is in fact benefiting sentient beings already. This manner of liberating living beings constitutes the perfection of discipline.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - Liberating Living Beings

The eight kinds of suffering set forth in The Words of My Perfect Teacher have all been part of our personal experiences. You may refer to the book for details. Some people assign a relatively low priority to the questions of life and death whereas fulfilling the basic needs of life is of the utmost importance. And they believe it is rightfully so. This just indicates a lack of in-depth understanding of suffering and impermanence. Why does the present matter but not the future? Can we really ignore the question about future life? Why don’t we need to resolve what will face us in the next life and the one after that? Is it justified to only care about the present? Some may argue that there is no next life based on some scientific reasoning. But I think this question is a philosophical one rather than scientific. No science can prove the nonexistence of past and future life. Some so-called proofs are just the premature judgment of a small group of people which in no way can refute the existence of past and future life. This is a very real question that we should not make any excuse to evade. But more importantly, we need to contemplate the true nature of samsara on a much deeper level. To take life and death only at face value is what keeps us in samsara from beginningless time until now. The fact is that we have been fooled all along and need to wake up to this fact as quickly as we can.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Four Noble Truths—the Path Out of Samsara

Ordinarily, when we talk or go for a walk, our mind is filled with a whole range of distractions. When we cannot concentrate or stay focused, it is difficult for wisdom to arise. It is only after subduing the mind, when it becomes clearer and sharper, that our thinking is more focused and more effective in problem solving. This includes problems connected with running a business and earning money.

Actually, many of the exciting discoveries made by scientists and philosophers in the past came during meditation and in their dreams. In no case did it happen when the mind was agitated or in states of discursiveness.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

What is the relation between death and realization of the nature of mind? Buddhism holds that all sentient beings have Buddha nature but for reason of being obscured by defilement are unable to realize it. During a brief period after death, as all consciousnesses, self-grasping and sense organs cease to function as well as all external disturbances, Buddha nature will thus present itself. It is like seeing the blue sky when clouds are dispersed, or abiding in the absolute quietness on the moon; the nature of mind shall be realized in such state. Realization gained in this state is much purer and clearer than that attained in sitting meditation in real life. Therefore, many Vajrayana practitioners not only do not fear death but also see death as once in a lifetime opportunity to propel the mind to higher level.

~Depicted from THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE'S JOURNEY -On Death And Rebirth-What Life Truly Is