KHENPO'S BLOG

We should not think that anything that is not discovered by science or proven with logic does not exist, as not everything can be measured by hard data. Things like rebirth or soul cannot be checked by scientific instruments, at least not for the time being. However, as science continues to break new grounds, it is entirely possible that one day we might be able to do that. For now, logic, as we know it, is rendered helpless in the field of parapsychology because our sense organs are not equipped to provide us with useful data to do this kind of analysis.

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

There is an analogy for this. When ink is poured on the snow, the snow will be turned into ink color. After it melts, the color can still be seen on the ground. Similarly, if karma is born of defilements, the karmic mark will be left in the alaya consciousness after defilements are gone. Karma (or cause) is kind of a unique ability. Although our eyes cannot see how rice seeds germinate, they do have within themselves the capacity to do so. Likewise, when a karmic seed is planted in the alaya consciousness, it will yield fruit when all the right conditions come together. This fruit is also called karmic effect. And this particular capacity of the alaya consciousness to yield karmic fruit is the inherent nature of cause.

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - On Cause and Effect

What is the wrong kind of non-attachment? If we do not practice this contemplation or experience a feeling of emptiness, just casually proclaim to let go of things at random or arbitrarily, that is the wrong kind of non-attachment.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - The Practice of No-Self

We neither came to nor will leave this world voluntarily. However unwilling, we all have to go when it is time, not by choice and certainly not on our terms. As well, we came in the same fashion. If there were free choices, no being would want to be born as an ox or a horse. But the reality is that we see these poor beings all the time. If free will were possible, all beings would naturally choose to be king in the human realm or someone like Indra, the King of the gods, instead of an ox or a horse. This clearly shows that beings cannot choose the timing or the form of birth. One just has to come when it is time. Why?

~Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Twelve Nidanas1—the sequence of cyclic existence

What does oneness refer to? Normally, the sutric system maintains that sentient beings are not buddhas but ordinary beings encumbered with defilement, who can transform their minds into the wisdom of the buddha only through Dharma practice over numerous lives. But the view set forth in the third turning of the wheel of Dharma, in particular that of tantra, is that ground and fruition are in fact one, that ground is fruition and fruition is ground. In other words, sentient beings are buddhas and buddhas are sentient beings; the two are one and the same.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO VAJRAYANA PATH - The Completion Stage —the skillful means to realize emptiness

What does true peace mean? After liberation, there is genuine freedom from the three types of suffering mentioned before; the seeds of the three types of suffering and their designations also cease to be. This pure and everlasting happiness is true peace. It is not the happiness ordinary people refer to; rather, happiness is just freedom from suffering that arises from contaminated actions. Because it is pure, it is deemed “true peace.”

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - Nirvana Is True Peace

Since ancient times, the one thing human beings have always longed for is happiness. Yet, with all the progress in society, what we believe to be happiness has eluded us. The rapid decline in the index on global well-being has compelled all of us to rethink: What is happiness? How do we find it? In recent years, this topic has generated even greater interest.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - The Tibetan Buddhist View on Happiness

Buddhism has a number of very special methods for overcoming suffering. With practice, the methods help us purify our mind and reach a higher state of attainment. In the short run, we can alleviate our stress; ultimately we can be free of the suffering of birth, aging, illness, and death.

~Depicted from ARE YOU READY FOR HAPPINESS - Suffering is just a Paper Tiger

What do we mean by attachment and object of attachment? As an example, when the eye consciousness perceives an object, attachment is formed. The object of attachment is that which is perceived by the eye consciousness. The eye consciousness and the object, that is, the attachment and the object of attachment, are separately known as the grasper and the grasped.

A pure or uncontaminated state is one in which grasper and the grasped all disappear; it is also the meditative state of bodhisattvas of the first and higher stages. Apart from the state of the buddhas and that of the realized bodhisattvas, all other states that contain grasper and the grasped are deemed impure or contaminated.

~Depicted from THE FOUR SEALS OF DHARMA - All Contaminated Things are Unsatisfactory