In the time of the Buddha, the listeners came from all walks of life. There were non-Buddhists, Brahmins, celestial beings, nagas, etc. Many of the Brahmins maintained a view of the universe that was at variance with the facts. The Buddha knew that to contradict them inopportunely would not only make them feel disagreeable but also jeopardize his work of propagating the Dharma. In order to teach them according to their capacity, the Buddha chose to apply skillful means instead, that is, to go along with their views, even knowing that those were wrong, as long as he could teach them the three characteristics of conditioned existence—impermanence, suffering and no-self (the Three Dharma Seals). The Buddha would not mind if the rest of their views were valid or not, because only through the knowledge of the Three Dharma Seals could they be liberated from samsara. Other branches of learning, no matter how proficient one is in, do not concern the question of liberation.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - Buddhism—the Definition

Buddhism holds that the cause of our cyclic existence is nothing physical but karmic force. As long as karmic forces remain, physical body will continue to manifest no matter how many times it has perished. Once the habitual tendency accumulated in the alaya consciousness has reached a maturing point, physical body may manifest at any given time. It can also be said that the physical world, the universe and the body of sentient beings are the work of alaya consciousness, not unlike what the materialists suggest that mental phenomena are something manufactured by the brain. The fact is that it would be totally useless to torture the body to attain enlightenment so long as karmic forces remain in the alaya consciousness. That is why the Buddha asked the followers not to live in hardship deliberately because it will not bring anyone any closer to liberation, only suffering upon oneself. Naturally, it would be a different matter altogether if being poor was due to a lack of merit. The Buddha did not say that Buddhists cannot be poor, must be wealthy, or that the poor and those having a hard life cannot attain liberation. He only advised that there is no need to go to extremes to be poor.

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

We have mentioned many times before that renunciation and bodhicitta are the basis of Vajrayana practice. Why is it necessary to reiterate this point here? Because they are the prerequisite a practitioner must have; without renunciation and bodhicitta, no benefit is to be derived from undertaking even the very sacred Vajrayana tantras such as Dzogchen—the Great Perfection. Only with renunciation and bodhicitta as a foundation can one formally enter Vajrayana practice.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO VAJRAYANA PATH - Entering the Vajrayana Path

How is Cause and Effect Generated?Whatever action we take, whether it is killing, stealing, or freeing animals and giving, we no longer perceive its existence after the action takes place. However, a special energy is stored within the deepest level of our consciousness -- the alaya consciousness. Alaya is a Sanskrit word which means storage. It is like a computer disk which can store a great deal of information.

Not only that, all the information pertaining to the previous life -- including a person’s knowledge, personality, and living conditions that distinguish him or her from others -- is stored in the alaya and transmitted to the next life.

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

Sakyamuni Buddha also indicated: If a monastic does not have greed and can easily, without much effort, come into ownership of a lavish piece of clothing worth 100,000 Kārshāpanas (the ancient Indian coin, about 8.8 grams of silver in weight, roughly 30 RMB in current value), the Buddha would also allow the monastic to wear the apparel. Can you imagine what kind of clothing it is?

In other words, a Buddhist practitioner need not necessarily eat poorly and dress poorly, or think he or she must refrain from using the good things in life. This would also be a form of attachment. The main point is not to develop greed for these things.

The whole purpose of bringing this up is to say Buddhism is not pessimistic. Although the Buddha exhorted his followers to be content with few desires, it does not mean one must live a life of austerity. Most importantly, one should seek meaning in life through liberation, not through the pursuit of worldly pleasures.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - The Practice of Suffering

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

Presently, there are many empowerments and teachings given on Dzogchen and Vajrayana Buddhism; there are also many people who claim they want to practice Dzogchen and receive empowerments. However, serious practitioners of impermanence and bodhicitta are few and far between. This is why we never see progress. We are true practitioners only if we earnestly undertake basic practices like impermanence and suffering. At that point, our worldview will be entirely different; however difficult or harsh life’s circumstances, there will be nothing we cannot think through and accept.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA -All Composite Phenomena are Impermanent

In the other case, the practice does not go well and is actually filled with a lot of negative emotions – greed, anger, delusion …. , even more so than when we are not meditating. It is easy at this time to be despondent and think if we meditate like this, there is no hope for liberation. We must then encourage ourselves: “Even if I failed at this sitting, there will be another. Although I encountered a lot of discursive thoughts as well as afflictions in this sitting, it is very normal since I am just a beginner; these distractions are to be expected. However, by persevering and making effort one step at a time, I will succeed for sure; there is no reason to lose hope.”Then vow to succeed in the next sitting. When practicing, do not fall into the two extremes – of being arrogant and feeling disappointed too early.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - The Final Review

First, let me introduce an ancient Tibetan text which has been praised by scholars as a must-read for the study of life and death, Bardo Tödröl (the Tibetan Book of the Dead).

1. Bardo Tödröl– a guide for the deceased

A book, titled Impressions of Heaven – 100 orally recorded stories of near-death experience (NDE), published by the Foreign Language Press in Beijing, China made the following comment: Bardo Tödröl has been around for more than 1000 years, but now it is the oldest reference for modern research on death. In the West, scholars who specialize in the study of death all recognize Bardo Tödröl and the Egyptian Book of the Dead as the two most important texts in their field. And by coincidence the description of the intermediate state given in Bardo Tödröl also agrees with the various phenomena found in the study of NDE. Therefore, it can be said that Bardo Tödröl is one of the most valuable contributions from the Tibetan people to the modern world.