How can a person who has practiced virtue his entire life be reborn in the lower realms?

Well, although the person may have been virtuous throughout this life, we do not know anything about this person’s previous lives. Maybe the person had been virtuous in this as well as the last two lifetimes, but this might not still be the case if we could go back even further. Some negative karma might have been committed many lifetimes ago. From the perspective of the three types of immutable karma, virtuous karma that the person had committed in this life happens to ripen not in the current or the next life, but in yet unknown future lives. That is, it may not come to fruition until perhaps hundreds or even thousands of years later.

When fundamental ignorance arises, our mind has already moved away from clarity to its second level. What is fundamental ignorance? At this level or state, the mind, prior to entering clarity, is very calm and relaxed and totally free of thought — correct, incorrect, good, bad, painful, happy... .

To be more specific, the origin of mind is clarity; subsequently, within clarity, slight undulations begin to form; when these undulations appear, the first moment of fundamental ignorance is produced. Although the innate clarity of the mind remains unchanged at this time, fundamental ignorance has already separated from clear light to form our consciousness. Here fundamental ignorance is likened to a ripple in the ocean. Although the ripple is not yet a wave, the calm ocean surface is not quite the same and is showing signs of undercurrent.

Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series : Suffering is just a Paper Tiger

Some people believe Buddhism opposes all forms of material enjoyment, enforces complete control over desire, and promotes ascetic practice. Actually, this is a misunderstanding. The Buddha said followers have the right to enjoy, not reject, what they are entitled to — wealth which is properly acquired or blessings accumulated during a past life from virtuous activity. The Buddha did not deny, to a certain extent, material goods can bring happiness. However, he made it clear not all happiness comes from material goods. He also said the happiness derived from material things is very short-lived and unreliable.

Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series :The Tibetan Buddhist View on Happiness

The greater, more extensive compassion encompasses more than just ensuring the basic needs of sentient beings. Those needs should be taken care of, but they are not the focal point. The most important is to make all sentient beings understand the facts of samsara and the ways to be freed from it. This is the Buddha’s greatest compassion—to teach sentient beings the truth first, then the methods for liberation.

Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series : Buddhism -- The Definition

Buddhism can be said to be a special kind of culture since it encompasses many rich academic disciplines; among them philosophy, astronomy, geography, and science. Not only that Buddhism also has its own view on life, on right values, and on the world.

The worldview of Buddhism is firstly a specific knowledge; but more importantly, it is one of formulating this knowledge into ways and methods which can be used in our daily life. One aspect deals with regulating our own mind; the other aspect deals with benefiting sentient beings, bringing happiness, a healthy life, and joy to more people — this is also the basic tenet of Buddhism.

Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

Life and death are critically important to everyone because they are destiny. No one can reject or avoid suffering associated with birth, aging, sickness, death and real life. Mustering up enough courage to face it is the only way.

When facing death, all the worldly wealth, knowledge, experience and so forth are rendered useless. Without prior training in preparation for one’s mortality, every person, however prominent his or her status in life is, will panic in the face of death. Many people become extremely pessimistic and despaired, turning gray-faced and gaunt in no time, after being diagnosed with advanced cancer and given the verdict of death by the doctors. Very often their fear is more detrimental to their condition than cancer itself.

Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series : On Death And Rebirth-How to Face Death

Our circumstances in this lifetime, whether favorable or not, happy or not, are all the result of good and bad karma we created in the past. It is just as the tidal wave brings great destruction to mankind, karma locks us in the endless suffering of samsara.

~ Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series : Suffering is just a paper tiger

Western philosophy can be divided into two different schools of thought — idealists and realists. Buddhism is neither one nor the other, even though the teachings contain a great deal of both elements. Some of the more substantive views of the idealist school in the West are set forth, for instance, in Bertrand Russell's discourse "Appearance and Reality," and in the writings of George Berkeley, the prominent British empirical idealist. They claimed reality consists solely of sensory perceptions and that there is no material world apart from this reality. These concepts are similar to the Mind Only school in Buddhism. However, Berkeley in the end encountered a contradiction in his own argument. In his response to exponents of the realist school, he grudgingly handed the problem back to God, which rendered his position unacceptable.

Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

Many scientists had no religious training in their youth or simply rejected it; nonetheless they slowly warm up to religion as they get older, even becoming very devoted believers. This is because the older one gets, the closer to death and the more lost one is, and the more urgent the need to rely on something to overcome fear of death and find a home for the mind. However, it is not easy to come upon a religion other than Buddhism that can truly explain death.

The view that everything ends after a person dies is a very simple, naïve and pessimistic take on life, drawing conclusion carelessly without knowing life at the deeper level. Think about this: We should all agree that it is impossible for the body to come from another place. But if we were to deny the existence of past and future life, we would have to first eliminate the possibility that consciousness or soul comes from another place. Since our sense organs do not see the coming and going of a soul, nor can any instrument make such observation, what evidence is there to prove that soul and consciousness also end when life ends?