India at the time of the Buddha had a plethora of religions and myriads of views. Some religions believed the world is controlled and ruled by Brahma, one of the celestial beings. If Brahma is happy, we’ll all be saved; if not, we’ll go to hell. In order to worship Brahma, people killed all sorts of animals as offering to him. This is ignorance.

Buddhism holds that Brahma does not rule the world; he is but one of the celestial beings in the six realms of samsara. As such, he is still bound by karma, has not gained liberation, may fall and suffer, and is certainly not omnipotent. Even if we make offerings to please him, he cannot help us escape cyclic existence; moreover, the killing of animals keeps us further entrenched in samsara.

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

Secondly, since we know everything is illusory, we are all in the midst of a dream. The difference is our dreams at night are generally short, whereas our dream in this world of samsara is comparatively long. When we reach the end of our lives and look back, we will find all the circumstances in life are as illusory and unreal as the dream we had the previous night. Hence, we should not grow overly attached to wealth, to relationships, etc. — things we think we can be attached to.

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

In regard to matter, many exciting breakthroughs have been achieved by science in the West. However, with respect to life itself, Western science has hardly broken any new grounds and thus failed to provide satisfactory answers to questions about life and death. Actually, the brain is analogous to the hardware and consciousness the software. Just like data in the software can be copied to different hardware, consciousness can be transplanted to another brain. That is to say, when a person’s physical body stops functioning, life still exists and can be transferred to another body, as the body is only a vehicle for the mind. This is the Buddhist view as well as that of Charles Scott Sherrington and John Carew Eccles, the two neurophysiologists and Nobel Laureates.

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

To attain liberation from the suffering of samsara, one must succeed in realization of emptiness being the true nature of all phenomena,regardless of its apparent difficulty. One needs to overcome this last hurdle, renunciation and bodhicitta being the first two, before going further on the path to liberation.Once the first two are fully generated, realizing emptiness will come next. Without the latter, liberation would still be beyond reach even with renunciation and bodhicitta completely aroused. There is just no way to get around this. So ultimately, one must attain realization that all phenomena are emptiness.

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

Unlike greed and anger which are quite noticeable, ignorance is a latent defilement. When we are angry or being greedy, it is obvious to not only ourselves but also others because our behavior is different, whereas ignorance is hidden deep down and not easily detected. None of the wise and knowledgeable people in the world including scientists, philosophers and psychologists has yet to discover ultimate ignorance. Although various fields of study have helped us clear some delusions and revealed to us many truths about life and the world, ignorance, a defilement entrenched at the deepest level, has never been explored by either science, philosophy or religions. Moreover, as the methods provided by these disciplines are not counteractive to ignorance, they are unable to refute and end ignorance.

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

APPLYING ILLUSIONIST CONCEPT TO LIFE

Transcending the Mundane World

What does the concept of illusion have to do with our life in this world? How do we make use of it?

Firstly, even though we now know the world is an illusion, it is a very real world from the standpoint of our eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. Because of this relative reality, we have to be responsible to our society, family, and company employees; we need to build a career and provide for our family. We have to abstain from destroying and harming life, from stealing and cheating, etc. Knowing everything to be illusory, we must nonetheless distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil.

The Buddha exhorted us to live by the rules in this world, to discern between good and evil, and to be mindful of cause and effect.

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

As a matter of fact, if there can be more tolerance and open-mindedness, we would not need to bother with expensive research because such views are common knowledge in Buddhism and free for all to use. Unfortunately, people tend to be quite arrogant some times, unwilling to accept unconventional views and rejecting all that is not seen or heard personally, or at variance with the conclusion derived directly from their own research. They will only accept a standpoint when others’ reasoning and their own are in agreement. Such obstinate and rigid attitude greatly restrains the intellectual progress of mankind.

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

So far we have discussed the imitative and the true version of practicing with a mind free of attachment and concepts. The true version refers to the way a bodhisattva, having arrived at the first ground, practices the six paramitas. Because the bodhisattva has realized the illusory nature of all phenomena, there is no attachment whatsoever to any practice of the six paramitas. But those who have not realized emptiness can only imitate the true version at best. If one does not understand the viewpoints of Madhyamaka, then not even this is practicable. When neither version is feasible, from what perspective can one approach the idea of a mind free of clinging and concepts?

For those who cannot practice either, the Buddha also pointed out a way. According to the scriptures, when practicing virtue, if it is impossible to have mind free of concepts and attachments, then at least try to be sincere and mindful. Being “mindful” means that not only the body does virtuous action but the mind also engenders proper aspiration, visualizes carefully and dedicates the merit. This would be the lowest level one can reach in any practice. If the body is doing virtuous action but the mind wanders off, the virtue so cultivated will be made superficial and brings no benefit. We must pay attention to this.

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

I. The harm of ignorance

In both Mahayana abhidharma and Sarvāstivāda’s abhidharmakosa, the term used for our negative emotions is kleśa or defilement, and different kinds of defilement have been clearly classified. Even in psychology and medicine, there are not nearly as many terms to describe the various aspects of negative emotions. However, no matter how it is classified, the origin of all defilement is ignorance.

Ignorance also means being deluded. Defilement arises because we don’t know the truth of this world and of ourselves. If the truth is known, there will not be defilement—the reason why ignorance is the origin of defilement.

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