Although most of the concepts the Buddha taught can be deduced logically, some are difficult to discover without profound insight like the Buddha’s. When Buddha Sakyamuni was propagating the Dharma, he also said it is difficult for an ordinary person to observe and understand cause and effect. Thus, before we reach a certain level of wisdom, it is best not to inspect the workings of cause and effect. Even if we try, we will not be able to come to any conclusion; we might even raise doubt over its validity.

Once there is doubt, we might act in our own interest without regard to the law and moral conduct; thinking others are unaware of our true intention, we bring harm and injury to them. If we genuinely believe in and respect cause and effect, we will be fearful of committing transgressions. This is because there is no connection between “cause and effect” and “whether others know our true intention.” When we commit a transgression, this action, like a seed, is stored and will one day mature. No one is spared at the time it matures; where there is cause, there is effect – that is the objective reality. Without cause and effect to restrain us, our moral standards will decline to even beyond the bottom line. This will create even greater alienation among people and generate a lot of problems for society. Therefore, we should believe in cause and effect, and practice the ten virtues.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - Spiritual Equipment for Modern Times

Without the Buddhist teachings and practice, most people are still able to endure suffering; this is because they hold on to hope, even if it is very slight. Faced with good fortune, however, it is difficult for them to remain composed; with money, power, and status, they become megalomaniacal and self-important. Unable to return to their simple life before, and even less willing to listen, reflect, and practice the teachings, they indulge in material pleasures and gradually deplete their blessings.

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

Why do we train in this technique? This is a method of purification. Just as the dishes have to be washed before we eat, the mind has to be trained in this way before it can abide in tranquility. Special techniques are needed to tame the mind; without these special techniques, the mind cannot be tamed. To control the mind, we must have a way, otherwise the more we try to control it, the less likely we are to succeed; just like the more you try to put something out of your mind, the harder it is to forget. As with all things in general, if we have methods, we can deal with problems easily; if we do not have methods, we will not succeed even with effort. This is also the case with practice.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - Preparing for the Preliminaries

The specific methods we have already mentioned are all techniques for integrating the Dharma in our daily life. A lot of people also recognize the need to bring the teachings into their life; however, without practice and the right view and understanding, what is there to bring into real life?

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - How to Face Suffering and Happiness-Taming the Mind as in Taming the Elephant

Some non-Buddhists in India follow asceticism strictly, forsaking food, clothes, bath, etc. They believe liberation can be attained through physical austerity. Others suggest that practitioners must jump into five fires—fires in the four directions plus the sun—to attain liberation after the body has been burned down. In Hetuvidya,¹ the view of a non- Buddhist school was mentioned, which posited that both physical and mental phenomena are the causes of samsara. When one of them is destroyed, freedom from samsara may then be possible.

We must be clear that all these views are wrong.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - A Buddhist’s Mode of Life

As in any practice, we must first know its underlying concept. It is only after full apprehension of the concept that practice can proceed. Without right understanding, our practice is blind. Without practice, right understanding is also useless. Hence, one complements the other; each is indispensable. We can eradicate our afflictions and attain liberation only with the perfect union of the two. Accordingly, before we discuss the actual practice of the Three Dharma Seals, we must also know its concept.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - SUMMATION

At the same time, we should think: although all that is defiled or tainted is the cause of suffering, I enjoy a quiet and relatively happy life now because of the merit I accumulated in past lives; this happiness does not come by easily. The sutras state that true and unparalleled good fortune in the world is to be able to live a relatively good life and have the opportunity to listen, reflect, and practice the Dharma at the same time. It is exceptionally rare to find people in samsara who fulfill both conditions.

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

Presently, on all the continents except Antarctica, there are children who can remember their past lives. When these children first began to talk, they would say who they were, where they came from; they would give their parents’ names and details of their past lives. Their parents in this life would then check and validate the actual existence and subsequent death of the persons mentioned. Often enough these children inherited very strong habitual tendencies from their past lives—one who loved to smoke in past life would steal his father’s cigarettes to smoke in this life; one who died of a car accident in past life would be too frightened to go near cars in this life, and so forth. Some of them don’t feel close to their parents of this life but take the parents and relatives in the past life as their real parents and family instead. Many parents are unwilling to make this public lest others should think their children are mentally unstable, out of embarrassment, or because it violates their own religious beliefs. Nevertheless, the secret gets out eventually.

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

Vajrayana Buddhism was developed in two stages: the First and the Second Propagation period. The period of the First Propagation refers to Nyingmapa whose central teaching is Dzogchen, or Great Perfection. The tantras of Great Perfection specify clearly that no meat eating be allowed. The period of the Second Propagation refers to Gelugpa, Kagyupa, Sakyapa and all the other schools of Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet except Nyingmapa. Of all the tantras of this period, the most important and pivotal is the Kalachakra Tantra. Both the Tantra and its annotations specify very clearly that meat eating is not allowed. All these point to the fact that Mahayana Buddhism, be it exoteric or esoteric, is against eating meat.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - Why Vegetarian?