WORDS OF WISDOM AUTHOR: KHENPO TSULTRIM LODRO

In the modern word, 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 seems to be less fortune than others in many aspects. Such cases tend to make people wonder, " If karma was 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 would even say, " I have attended many pujas and read some many scriptures. I should not have to suffer this or that illness or misfortune." This is wrong view. The fact is that all the virtuous actions committed have been store in our alaya consciousness. It is due to the relevant conditions not yet matured that karma derived from those actions has not come to fruition. 

~Depicted from FROM BELIEVERS TO BODHISSATTVAS

Compared with people in past eras, modern people enjoy abundant material wealth. Yet, from the spiritual perspective, people often feel hollow inside, poor, and are tormented by suffering. The suffering of poverty in material can lead to one’s suicide; spiritual hollowness and suffering can lead to one’s suicide as well.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

Why the negative karma of having the wrong view is so severe? According to Chittamatra school, various virtuous and unvirtuous seeds are stored in the alaya consciousness of sentient beings. Once we engender wrong views, which will vanquish all the power of virtuous seeds, from then on, the virtuous seeds or the root of virtue in our mind stream will discontinue.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

What are the three supreme methods ? They are : 1. Motivation; 2. actual practice with a mind of free of clinging and concepts; 3. dedication. 

1. Motivation 

Normally, purpose should always precede action. Very rarely a good deed or spiritual practice is undertaken without a purpose. If virtuous actions are accompanied with supreme motivations, twice the result can be achieved with half the effort. 

2. Practice with a mind of free of clinging and concepts

It refers to a certain state achieved in practice. Once succeeded in reaching this state, all the good deeds that one does, be it meditation or animal liberation, will naturally become something supremely excellent. 

3. Dedication 

Upon completion of a virtuous deed or spiritual practice, a proper dedication of the merits should be done according to the text. Since very good karma has already been effected during meditation or animal liberation, how to apply this good karma thus becomes a pivotal question. Should it be used to attain liberation, health, longevity or rebirth in the god or human realm? We can choose. In essence, dedication is to make a purposeful choice. 

~Depicted from FROM BELIEVERS TO BODHISATTVAS

We need to come to a clear understanding of what do we need? Is it money or happiness? Desiring both is difficult to achieve. Even endowed with some merit, one can make some profit through exertion, yet one might not be able to live an easeful life. Other than attaining a high level of spiritual achievement, how can one maintain a calm mind while being preoccupied with various engagements? Thus as an ordinary being, we have to choose one between these two.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

Bodhicitta is our eternal, ultimate insurance policy. In order to assure our safety in samsara, we need to have an insurance policy as such, which is not bought, rather it needs to be cultivated with compassion. One can only cultivate bodhicitta with loving kindness and compassion.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

The cultivation of renunciation begins with the four general preliminaries : contemplating the rarity and preciousness of human birth, the impermanence of all phenomena, the law of infallible karma and the suffering of samsara. Upon successfully completing the general preliminary practice, renunciation will arise spontaneously. As for relative bodhicitta, it has two stages, i.e, aspiring and engaging. The practice of aspiring bodhicitta is to cultivate the Four Immeasurables: loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy and equanimity through which unbiased, unlimited compassion for all sentient beings will arise. Once that has been developed, generation of bodhicitta will be just steps away. It is only when practice progresses in an orderly fashion, step-by-step, that we can hope to reap any results. 

~Depicted from FROM BELIEVERS TO BODHISATTVAS

Someone endowed with relative bodhicitta has embarked on the path of accumulation. Without bodhicitta, one is a mere Buddhist, not having entered the path of accumulation. Thus the key element to enter the path of accumulation hinges on whether or not one has generated bodhicitta.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES

Pure perception is the essential, most important, most salient and unique view of the secret mantra vehicle. Although the Mahayana Vimalakirti Sutra also clearly explained pure perception, recognizing that the original quality of the world is not the impure world that we perceive, but the purity of the Buddha.

~Depicted from LUMINOUS WISDOM BOOK SERIES