..续本文上一页 and make efforts to prosper it. As shown in any sutra or shastra, dharma contains the wisdom that can dispel all kinds of sufferings and the great compassion that can benefit all sentient beings. However nowadays, many Buddhists just demonstrate the noble dharma with very poor behaviors. It is such a pity!

　　Why are so many people fascinated by Vajrayana today

　　 What are their initial motivations

　　 Very possibly, they are looking for good health and wealth. In fact, no matter how profound and precious it is, such motivations already deteriorate the noble dharma. Venerable Atisha had a disciple who was practicing Hevajra, but in the end, he fell into the cessation of Hinayana. Why

　　 Due to his incorrect motivation, even the supreme Vajrayana dharma led him to an unexpected ending. Therefore, whether one practices dharma well or not mainly depends on the practitioner”s motivation.

　　Because of the lacking in systematic study and solid theoretical background, nowadays many people don”t have a good understanding of the vastness and depth of dharma teaching. No matter what they do, such as chanting sutras, making prostrations, offering incenses, they all consequently become superficial behaviors. Even being Buddhists for many years, they cannot make any progress this way.

　　We should know that, Buddhism really has two aspects, wisdom and compassion. If we want to grasp the essence of Buddhism, we have to go through a systematic study. Some intelligent young people are very devout to Three Jewels, as they actively collect merits and zealously take part in dharma activities. However, they do not want to study or even talk about the theory of Buddhism. Some even believe that, learning those theories will make one”s conceptual mind more complicated and thus cause more obstacles to one”s liberation. Actually, all the sutras are from Shakyamuni Buddha and all the shatras are from those great Bodhisattvas such as Nagarjuna, how can they hinder our liberation

　　 Some people just don”t understand the obscurations of liberations and have such unreasonable ideas. On the other hand, if one knows nothing about Buddhist theory, his practice must be blind and have no direction, which is the biggest obstacle of liberation.

　　Some people have been Buddhists for eight or ten years, however, they mainly keep asking for empowerments from different gurus and never complete the preliminary practice. Especially in Hong Kong, being a very open city, the advertisements of dharma transmission or empowerment are all over the place. Some may have received a large number of empowerments, but they only chant mantras as daily homework, having no idea of sticking to their vows, and are not interested in dharma learning at all. This is a big problem for their practice.

　　If you grow up in a Buddhist family, like our Tibetans, then even without very good wisdom, your faith can be strong enough. However, in today”s society, people have all kinds of thoughts. Being a Buddhist and not knowing the dharma teaching, one might lose his faith when encountering certain circumstances. If that happens, he would have nothing to rely on and just feel perplexed. On the contrary, if one learns dharma systematically, the right view of Buddhism will be powerful enough to destroy any doubts or incorrect thoughts, which is very important for today”s dharma practitioners.

　　V. Guide Your Dharma Practice With Impermanence

　　For all of us, meditating on impermanence is the fundamental dharma practice. In Open the Door to the Mind, there are many instructions on how to practice impermanence. In one of his teachings, Padmasambhava used an analogy to explain impermanence. A person accidentally fell down the cliff, and all of sudden, he grasped a bunch of grass on the cliff. He held it firmly, and it”s a …

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