2. Actual practice with mind free of clinging and concepts

Mind “free of clinging and concepts” means emptiness, the void nature of all phenomena. Most of you may not have realized emptiness, but there is no need to be anxious. Once you have generated renunciation and bodhicitta, realization of emptiness can be rather easy to accomplish after all. Conversely, trying to realize emptiness without cultivating renunciation and bodhicitta first will be like making rice out of sand. To use another analogy, it will be easier to harvest when seeds are sown in springtime. Whereas in wintertime, due to a lack of the requisite conditions, seeds sown in this season may not yield any crop no matter how much effort has been made. That is to say, when all the necessary conditions are in place and ripe for happening, things will naturally take their courses as wished.

~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind

Previously, I have never emphasized Vajrayana practices such as the Great Perfection. And personally, I don’t ever dream of one day attaining realization of the Great Perfection either. Is it because the Great Perfection is not sublime enough? No. The Great Perfection and the Great Madhyamaka are indeed highly sublime practices of Vajrayana. But my capacity is still not sufficient enough for me to tackle something so profound as renunciation and bodhicitta have yet been fully developed. It is as if someone sets out to paint a mural, but there is no wall space available. Of course, no mural either. So, a wall must be built first for a mural to be painted later on. This is how my situation is like right now. Practices such as the Great Perfection or the meditation of inner winds and channels are something I need to learn and master but have not so far. At this point, I can only yearn for the successful generation of renunciation and bodhicitta. Other Vajrayana practices, like the Great Perfection, are not what I am seeking just yet. In fact, I will not even think about them because that will not help me one bit. My only wish now is to strengthen the foundational practices, i.e., renunciation and bodhicitta. Actually, many of the general and extraordinary preliminaries are developed and practiced just for this purpose.

~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind

All the schools of Tibetan Buddhism offer chöd (cutting though the ego) practice. Chöd is a very special practice that has many versions. There is an initial chöd practice in the preliminary practice of Dzogchen, called kusali chöd. In this practice, one visualizes offering one’s own body to the guru and the Three Jewels as well as to the ghosts and non-humans. The real chöd practice is, by applying a rather uncommon method, to cut through attachment and defilement with realization of emptiness. The premise of undertaking this practice is to attain realization of emptiness and to grow and strengthen the power of this realization. When one has reached a more mature state in the practice, one then meditates in places where mundane spirits inhabit. There one is likely to encounter real ghosts, hear unusual sounds, or witness some strange phenomena. Most people will get nervous in this situation and have a heightened sense of self. If one concentrates on the void nature of phenomena at that time, self-grasping can be eliminated successfully along with other negative emotions such as fear and anxiety.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On The Three Poisons - How to Confront Anger

The same method can be applied here. For example, we are usually averse to noise. When that happens, we can also try to see what the nature of aversion is. Or, instead of resisting the noise, focus all the attention on the sound itself. By doing this, we will realize the so-called sound is only a kind of feeling produced in our ears when the external sound waves vibrate the ear drum; it is a mental phenomenon. Once the focus is on the sound itself, its empty and illusory nature will be realized.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On The Three Poisons - How to Confront Anger

There is a very convenient example in modern technology. The old motion picture film is actually made up of many reversal films; the first picture film has no connection whatsoever with the second picture film, but due to the speed at which they are rolled out (twenty-four films per second), we do not notice where one picture ends and the next begins. We mistakenly think when a person in an image is walking and talking, it is one continuous motion; we do not expect the connecting images to be formed by many separate films. An illusion is produced because our eye cannot perceive matter of a subtle nature. For scientists and philosophers, this logic should be easy to follow.

~ Depicted from ARE U READY FOR HAPPINESS : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

We should never rely too much on our senses because they are imperfect. The eye can only see the most superficial layer of the earth; we see light, but only a minute part of the spectrum. We hear sounds, but only ordinary sounds; we cannot distinguish between sound waves of higher or lower frequencies. Hence, we cannot conclude our sensory perceptions are absolutely real.

~ Depicted from ARE U READY FOR HAPPINESS : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

Average practitioners do not reject or fear death because they know they have already achieved certain stability and have control over their practice that will enable them to face death when the time comes.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On Death And Rebirth-Understanding Death

Many scientists had no religious training in their youth or simply rejected it; nonetheless they slowly warm up to religion as they get older, even becoming very devoted believers. This is because the older one gets, the closer to death and the more lost one is, and the more urgent the need to rely on something to overcome fear of death and find a home for the mind. However, it is not easy to come upon a religion other than Buddhism that can truly explain death.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On Death And Rebirth-Understanding Death

There are also those who ignore these basics but tirelessly run back and forth between China and Tibet to receive empowerments without knowing their respective meanings, conditions and requirements beforehand, which in the end have very little effect on their quest for liberation. So, I hope you will all make generation of renunciation and bodhicitta your aim and strictly refrain yourselves from undertaking any Vajrayana practice until your aim has been achieved. Only then can you consider the advanced, more profound practices like the Great Madhyamaka, Kalachakra, Mahamudra, the Great Perfection and so forth. The Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism offers rich pickings of sublime practices, described by some as being plentiful as the yak’s hair. But no one would be qualified to practice any without first developing renunciation and bodhicitta as the base, which ought to be the single most important practice for us now.

~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind