Thus, Buddhism believes all phenomena which arise and cease due to causes and conditions are like a dream, like magic, like a water bubble, like shadow. They are all unreal and illusory.

However, from the standpoint of relative truth, if we want to survive and live a normal life, we need the illusion. If this illusion is shattered, the basis of our survival and our beliefs will collapse.

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

Average practitioners do not reject or fear death because they know they have already achieved certain stability and have control over their practice that will enable them to face death when the time comes.

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

There are also those who ignore these basics but tirelessly run back and forth between China and Tibet to receive empowerments without knowing their respective meanings, conditions and requirements beforehand, which in the end have very little effect on their quest for liberation. So, I hope you will all make generation of renunciation and bodhicitta your aim and strictly refrain yourselves from undertaking any Vajrayana practice until your aim has been achieved. Only then can you consider the advanced, more profound practices like the Great Madhyamaka, Kalachakra, Mahamudra, the Great Perfection and so forth. The Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism offers rich pickings of sublime practices, described by some as being plentiful as the yak’s hair. But no one would be qualified to practice any without first developing renunciation and bodhicitta as the base, which ought to be the single most important practice for us now.

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

The drum used by chöd practitioners is made out of human skull, not of wood; human bones are also used to make their wind instrument. The places that they choose to do their practice are often haunted. All these seem impervious to reason for the general public, especially the exoteric Buddhist practitioners. The intent is to infuriate the spirits by deliberately showing contempt and provoke them into retaliating with thunder, lightning, and other such terrifying signs, because practicing emptiness under great stress is more conducive to eradicating self-grasping. Granted, such practice should only be done after attaining realization. If not, there may be more harm than benefit by just imitating others.

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

There is a very convenient example in modern technology. The old motion picture film is actually made up of many reversal films; the first picture film has no connection whatsoever with the second picture film, but due to the speed at which they are rolled out (twenty-four films per second), we do not notice where one picture ends and the next begins. We mistakenly think when a person in an image is walking and talking, it is one continuous motion; we do not expect the connecting images to be formed by many separate films. An illusion is produced because our eye cannot perceive matter of a subtle nature. For scientists and philosophers, this logic should be easy to follow.

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

II. Practitioners’ attitude toward death

There are three kinds of attitude:

Superior practitioners welcome death. As Milarepa sang, “Death is not death; yogi becomes a junior Buddha.” To such practitioners, death does not signify despair or termination of existence, which is the perception of ordinary people. As they go through death each time, they may not be able to attain Buddhahood right away, but they can gain higher realization every time. Accomplishment like this is akin to that of a junior Buddha.

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

2. Actual practice with mind free of clinging and concepts

Mind “free of clinging and concepts” means emptiness, the void nature of all phenomena. Most of you may not have realized emptiness, but there is no need to be anxious. Once you have generated renunciation and bodhicitta, realization of emptiness can be rather easy to accomplish after all. Conversely, trying to realize emptiness without cultivating renunciation and bodhicitta first will be like making rice out of sand. To use another analogy, it will be easier to harvest when seeds are sown in springtime. Whereas in wintertime, due to a lack of the requisite conditions, seeds sown in this season may not yield any crop no matter how much effort has been made. That is to say, when all the necessary conditions are in place and ripe for happening, things will naturally take their courses as wished.

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

All the schools of Tibetan Buddhism offer chöd (cutting though the ego) practice. Chöd is a very special practice that has many versions. There is an initial chöd practice in the preliminary practice of Dzogchen, called kusali chöd. In this practice, one visualizes offering one’s own body to the guru and the Three Jewels as well as to the ghosts and non-humans. The real chöd practice is, by applying a rather uncommon method, to cut through attachment and defilement with realization of emptiness. The premise of undertaking this practice is to attain realization of emptiness and to grow and strengthen the power of this realization. When one has reached a more mature state in the practice, one then meditates in places where mundane spirits inhabit. There one is likely to encounter real ghosts, hear unusual sounds, or witness some strange phenomena. Most people will get nervous in this situation and have a heightened sense of self. If one concentrates on the void nature of phenomena at that time, self-grasping can be eliminated successfully along with other negative emotions such as fear and anxiety.

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

In observing the movement of electrons from the standpoint of physics, we mistakenly believe that if an electron starts out in the east, moves south, west, north in that order, and then back to its starting point, it is the same electron; hence we call this “motion.” However, in observing the movement of electrons from the standpoint of Buddhism, we discover that when an electron appears to be revolving around the nucleus of an atom, the electron occupying the first degree of the orbit is already destroyed in its place; occupying the second degree up to three hundred sixty degrees of the orbit are countless electrons, all newly arisen and instantly destroyed in their place; these different electrons form the illusion of an orbit.

In the same way, the world we see actually exists only in an infinitesimal fraction of a second (one out of ten thousand parts of a second, possibly less). The world in the instant before has already disappeared; the world in the future has yet to come. Nonetheless, we believe the world exists in a continuum, permanently without change. This conclusion is the result of our deluded mind.

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