WORDS OF WISDOM AUTHOR: KHENPO TSULTRIM LODRO

If everything were predestined and immutable as some non-Buddhists believe, what would be the point of undertaking spiritual practice? Since everything has already been set, there is no point trying to change anything in life—if you are having a good life, rejoice in your good fortune; if you are having a miserable one, just bear it. By the same token, if everything were predetermined, it would be useless to give food to the needy since going hungry would have been their destiny anyway. Hence, fatalism fails to stand up to scrutiny.

[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series ~ The Right View : On Cause and Effect]

How do we decide who is an emanation of whom? It is not based on inference or feeling. There is no way our five senses can see such a hidden connection. Neither can our logic infer such results. We can only rely on the prophecy of Padmasambhava and the vajra speech of great masters. We can fully trust in the practice and character of these great masters who would never deceive sentient beings. The words spoken by the Buddha and these noble beings who were like buddhas, are called authoritative scriptures.

[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series ~ The Guru Yoga Practice of the Seven-Line Prayer to Padmasambhava]

Although non-Buddhist traditions espouse beliefs that also proclaim some notion of emptiness, they fail to elucidate the void nature of all phenomena based on dependent origination. Their idea of emptiness is only some sort of “mere emptiness,” unlike one that is inseparable from phenomena. For example, some non-Buddhists point out that what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears are all illusory. However, most of their ideas about emptiness just amount to nothingness, and ignore phenomena altogether. This is neither the emptiness taught by Nagarjuna and other like-minded masters, nor the one expounded by Asanga and others, which is inseparable from luminous clarity. The emptiness of non-Buddhism simply means non-existence, like human heads being without horns, which is not the true meaning of Buddhist emptiness. The non-Buddhist idea of emptiness, regrettably, is merely this.

[Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1 : The Right View ~ The Three Differences]

That was the view of the mainstream non-Buddhists during the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. Later, when the followers of Islam invaded India, some of the most important Buddhist sites, such as Nalanda Monastery and Mutsamoshila (Precept Monastery), were demolished. Subsequently, a few non-Buddhist schools began to adopt certain Buddhist theories, resulting in the non-Buddhist canon being mixed with many Buddhist teachings. Yet, up until now, not one of these schools has been capable of articulating a realization of emptiness beyond the notion of “not-self.”

[Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1 : The Right View ~ The Three Differences]

In any case, the key difference between Buddhism and non-Buddhism lies in taking refuge in the Three Jewels.

Accordingly, taking refuge is deemed a prerequisite for anyone who wants to learn Buddhism. However, it has never been forced upon anyone. Only those who want to learn the Buddha’s teachings or take up Buddhist practice must satisfy this requirement. Not taking refuge is to remain an “outsider,” off the path to liberation, and one cannot be deemed a Buddhist.

[Depicted from Luminous Wisdom Book Series 1 : The Right View ~ The Three Differences]

Many people consider Buddhism as idealism, because everything in this world is a reflection of our mind. It is not true, although most of other religions in the west are idealism but not Buddhism. On the other hand, Buddhism is neither materialism. Although we may find Buddhism may be partial materialism or idealism, but it is neither in general. Materialism and Idealism belongs to a certain category of western philosophy, but it can not include all the human knowledge.

Buddhism believe the world is neither consist of material or immaterial, it is an illusion created by our mind.

[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series ~ The Illusory World]

In the modern world, people also have similar questions. There are some who have never stolen things, killed or hurt anyone; rather, they have kept their vows and practiced virtue. Yet, they often seem to be less fortunate than others in many respects. Such cases tend to make people wonder, “If karma is true, why should good people run into bad luck?”

Lay practitioners who do not have in-depth knowledge of karma or fully understand the viewpoints of Abhidharma-kosha-shastra may ask the same question. Some might even say, “I have attended many pujas and read so many scriptures. I should not have to suffer this or that illness or misfortune.” This is a wrong view. The fact is that all the virtuous actions committed have been stored in our alaya consciousness. It is due to the relevant conditions having not yet matured that karma derived from those actions has not come to fruition. This is like a farmer who sowed all his grains in the springtime and must wait five to six months for the harvest. In the meantime, he is just a poor fellow with nothing left to eat at home. 

Our common sensations are sometimes misleading; the result of scientific research is more reliable. If we conduct logical analyses, we come to realize that the world we are living in is only as brief as one ten thousandth of a second; the rest is our own illusion.

As an example on the macro level, consider dozens of lights lined up together. The first light is turned on, then turned off; immediately after that, the second light is turned on and off, then the third, fourth and fifth light, and so on to the end. We could see that each light is an individual with not much relationship to the others, but if we see the lights from a distance, it seems that one light moves from the first spot to the last. This is only an optical illusion in which there is actually no movement of the light. Again, in Buddhist terminology this is called arising and ceasing.

[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series ~ The Illusory World]

Apparently, even non-Buddhist practitioners with some spiritual realization may still be confused about the workings of cause and effect, not to mention people without any right view or understanding. The complexity of the cycle of cause and effect and how it passes through the past, present and future makes it possible only for the Buddha to comprehend entirely its causal relationships. Others merely glimpse different parts of the cycle. These non-Buddhist practitioners are usually well learned; some may even have acquired certain clairvoyance into worldly matters. However, they jumped to a conclusion only based upon what they saw—virtuous people who took rebirth in the lower realms—and from this they concluded that cause and effect cannot exist. Then books were written and theories developed based on this conclusion, which gradually formed into a sect after attracting enough followers. This is how nihilism was established.

[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series ~ The Right View : On Cause and Effect]