My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling one,

This letter is to follow on from the cards I sent earlier. I hadn’t quite finished the letter then. I am sorry for the long delay.

Nagarjuna said: Body and mind—both are not I. The I is not together one’s body and mind. 

Nagarjuna mentioned that the I is not the body, which consists of the four elements. Nagarjuna said the I is not water, earth, wind nor fire. The I is not all of them together either, which means the same thing. [See v. 80 ff., Precious Garland.]

The I is not form, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors and consciousness. Meditate like that: the I is not all of them together.

The other way to meditate is: earth is not I, fire is not I, wind is not I, and so on. Even all together the four elements are not I, so these are not the real I at all.

There is no I separate from the five aggregates and there are no aggregates separate from the I. Therefore the real I cannot be found. As I mentioned before, there are the five aggregates and there is no real I in nature on that base, from the hair down to the toes. The real I neither exists on the valid base, the aggregates, nor does it exist outside anywhere in the world. Therefore the real I never exists and the omniscient mind sees the non-existence of the real I. There is no real I, and the omniscient mind never sees this real I which [we believe] existed before and will exist in the future. So the real I that we believe exists—not only from this morning, but from beginningless rebirth—the real I that appears from there, and not only that, we totally trust in it, so that real I is a total hallucination.

That is the false I, so when it dissolves or disappears, just there, it doesn’t go anywhere, through wind, through the door, through the house. Just from right there, from where it appears, we can see it is totally false. Just right there it disappears and we can recognize it is totally false. As we start to recognize it is false, it cannot appear like before, as it has from beginningless rebirth. So it disappears and we realize it is false.

At that time, lower intelligent beings, even bodhisattvas, can get incredible fear, because the mind is habituated from beginningless rebirth to believe what appears as real, that it really exists. However, to let it disappear totally is the correct way and we don’t need to be afraid.

Highly intelligent ones who have a lot of merit, when the I disappears—the I that is totally empty, what we believe is real or true—when seeing that it is totally false, they have unbelievable joy, happiness. Tears come out and the hair from their pores stands up. This happens to highly intelligent beings, bodhisattvas, and through that if strong fear arises, then that is very positive. [If we experience that] it means we’re meditating on emptiness correctly. So we have to go through that, like crossing a river by a sailing boat.

Later when the I disappears completely, it is the result of that. It is the cause of seeing the I as empty from its own side, and as a result we see that the I definitely exists, but it exists in mere name, as merely labeled by the mind. The first one is the realization of the absolute truth of the I, and the second one is the realization of conventional truth, the truth for the all-obscuring mind.

I don’t know what the English meaning is for conventional truth. In Tibetan kun dzob den pa means truth for the all-obscuring mind, so in reality it’s the hallucinating mind, what we believe. The false I that appears to exist from its own side, existing by itself or truly existent—this I doesn’t exist. We believe in this I, which doesn’t exist. We believe in that false I one hundred percent, day and night from beginningless rebirth, not only at this moment.

But the I that naturally exists is what is merely imputed by the mind. This is relating to the valid base, the aggregates. That [conventional I] exists but our mind never realizes that, never thinks of that. What exists is totally opposite [to what we believe.]

The I that exists in reality is most unbelievably subtle. Even famous meditators when they think of the I as empty—shunyata, tong pa nyi, only emptiness—if they lack merit, then they fall into nihilism or eternalism. Thinking that I exists from its own side, then it’s difficult to realize the middle way view.

When devoid of these two, eternalism and nihilism, then by realizing that the I is empty of existing from its own side—that it is not truly existent, it is empty of the real I—we discover or see that, and we realize shamatha, calm abiding, one-pointedness meditation. We cut the attachment and sinking thought, and on that basis have equipoise meditation. So try to achieve that and know that.

There are five paths to achieve nirvana and liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering, to achieve everlasting happiness and then ultimate happiness. When we achieve the second path of preparation, at that time we achieve special insight. Then while our mind is focused on emptiness, on that basis we realize shamatha, calm abiding, and then we are able to derive physical ecstasy of the body and mental ecstasy of the mind and we can develop that.

Then we achieve the third right-seeing path that realizes emptiness directly. That becomes the antidote to the negative imprints of delusion, the negative seeds of delusion. That attainment ceases the delusions; they are removed by the third right-seeing path through equipoise meditation.

Next we achieve the path of meditation. That path removes [another] level of delusion, so we are free from the negative seeds of delusion. In this way all the delusions are ceased. Here we  achieve the realization of the ultimate nature of mind and become free from oceans of samsaric sufferings including the causes of delusion and karma, so we achieve liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering—nirvana.

Still there is great liberation, full enlightenment, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations. We need to achieve that for all sentient beings, and for that we need to remove the subtle defilements and obscurations by the direct perception of emptiness. By developing ultimate wisdom, directly perceiving emptiness, with the help of the method, bodhicitta, then we collect more than skies of merits. Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable.

We develop bodhicitta aided by the wisdom realizing emptiness, the direct perception of emptiness, and in that way we are able to achieve dharmakaya and rupakaya—the Buddha’s holy mind and holy body—in order to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings. Before bodhicitta there is great compassion for every sentient being. This has to be generated and before that, renunciation of our own samsara.

That is the evolution, the process of the path, to develop the path, what needs to be realized. Then we are able at that time to have omniscient mind and infinite compassion for all sentient beings and at that time we have perfect power to reveal all the methods for every sentient being, to gradually bring them to full enlightenment, the great liberation.

When we achieve a buddha’s holy body and holy mind, then we achieve the total cessation of all the obscurations and achieve all the realizations. At that time we have omniscience and perfect power to reveal all the different methods to every sentient being and bring them to enlightenment.

That is why we have received a perfect human rebirth just this one time and we have met the Buddhadharma. We have met the most precious, perfect virtuous friend—like His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other virtuous friends—who reveal the unmistaken path to enlightenment. This is how Buddha guides us to enlightenment; we must recognize that. But this doesn’t include me, I am not putting myself there.

I hope you enjoy the cards and enjoy this. It is most important for inner success, please enjoy. With much love and prayers and thank you very much. Please have a meaningful life. It is just this one time that we have achieved this perfect human rebirth.

With much love and prayers...