There are two motivations for doing an action, one being the motivation at the time of the action (timely motivation), the other being the motivation before doing it (causal motivation). If you cultivate bodhicitta in the morning, it becomes the causal motivation for all the activities you do from then on during that day. By training your mind with effort in bodhicitta each day, it will gradually transform into the thought to benefit others, and one day naturally, without any effort, you will be able to live your life with bodhicitta arising spontaneously. All your daily life actions will be transformed into virtue. This was the reason for Khedrub-je’s praise of his guru, Lama Tsongkhapa, “Even your breathing in and out benefits all sentient beings.”
In the same way that you generate bodhicitta in the morning, you can also make a strong determination to meditate on emptiness. When you wake up, you can think, “Everything, including I, action, object, and all other phenomena from form until enlightenment—hell, liberation, samsara, happiness, problems, virtue and non-virtue, and so forth—appear to the mind as real, from there. But they do not exist in the way that they appear.” These phenomena appear to your mind as being there on the base. They are all decorated by the imprint of ignorance, fabricated, or projected, by your mind. How? Because of negative imprints left on your mental continuum by the past concept of inherent existence, all these things appear inherently existent. It’s like what happens to a person whose mind is affected by disease or drugs or who is wearing blue glasses. Someone whose mind is unaffected realizes that the snow mountain is white; one with a non-defective valid cognizer sees a white snow mountain. But one whose mind is affected by drugs or disease or who is wearing blue glasses has the view of a blue snow mountain. He has that projection, that hallucination, that view of a blue snow mountain. His hallucinating mind projects that view. In reality, no blue snow mountain exists; there is no blue color there.
The teachings often give the example of a piece of rope appearing like a snake. You believe it is a snake and become terrified, when in fact there is no snake there. A woman in Singapore or Malaysia told me that once, near her house, she saw a piece of rope. She went to pick it up, but it was a snake! It was the other way around! She thought it was a rope and discovered it was a snake. Because it looked like a rope, her hallucinating mind made up the label rope. Her concept projected rope. Then rope appeared and she saw a rope. But the rope didn’t exist anywhere at all.
When you do retreat on the Heart Sutra or train your mind in emptiness daily, view things in a variety of ways so that you don’t become bored with just one technique. In the morning, make the plan, “I’m going to practice meditation on emptiness.” Decide at that time what you are going to practice the rest of the day, or during the breaks if you are doing retreat. By the way, break time does not mean you take a break from virtue. You don’t get even a second’s break from samsara, so you shouldn’t take even a moment’s break from virtue! For the benefit of yourself and other sentient beings, you need to practice Dharma constantly—this precious human life may be the only chance you’ll get. If you take rebirth in the lower realms, not only will you be overwhelmed by unimaginable suffering for an incredible length of time, but you will also have not the slightest opportunity to practice Dharma. Even future rebirth in the deva or human realms is no guarantee that you’ll have the opportunity to practice Dharma. For these reasons, it is important to use every moment of your life to practice, that is, to transform your mind, as much as you possibly can. In other words, break time simply means a break from sitting meditation. Meditation practice is divided into session time and break time. The breaks are another type of meditation time.
When in the morning you make a strong determination to practice mindfulness of emptiness during the rest of the day, it becomes easier to do so. Maintain awareness that “The I, action, and all phenomena appear as something real, there on the base, but this is all fabricated, or projected from negative imprints left on my hallucinating mind. Everything I perceive is projected by my hallucinating mind. None of it is there; it does not exist at all.” Think of the examples that I explained before.
In this way, practice the mindfulness that all these things are projections of your hallucinating mind and appear because of negative imprints left on your consciousness by previous ignorance. Practice this mindfulness with whatever appears in front of you right now. For example, you are looking at me and a real Lama Zopa appears from there. When you look at the flowers on the altar, real flowers appear from there. All existent objects—even the mind itself—appear as real, existing there, from the side of the base. They are all projected by your hallucinating mind because of the negative imprints that have been left on it. You do not need many words to practice this mindfulness. The most important thing is to practice it one-pointedly. When you do, the understanding that all these things are not true will arise in your heart. You will understand that they do not exist in the way that they appear to you. They are not there. Emptiness arises in your heart. This is an extremely effective way to practice mindfulness in everyday life.
Then, the next day, practice a different technique. For example, think of other beings’ point of view—how they see you, how they see everything. That also helps you understand that your view is completely wrong. Things appear to you and you apprehend them as one hundred percent real, just as they appear, but this is not what all the Buddhas, arhats, or arya bodhisattvas see. What they discover in meditative equipoise on the nature of reality is not this. What they discover is that all this is completely non-existent. Buddhas, arhats, and arya bodhisattvas see that everything—I, action, and object—is totally empty of the way that it appears to your mind, totally empty of existing in the way that you believe. Those who have perceived reality directly see the total opposite of what appears to you. They see that everything is totally empty. In the view of ignorance, everything exists from its own side, but in the view of wisdom, the reality of phenomena is emptiness. Wisdom realizes that nothing exists from its own side.
Another day, practice mindfulness of things being merely labeled by mind. For example, while walking, ask yourself, “What am I doing?” Answer, “I’m walking.” Ask yourself again, “Why do I say I’m walking?” You will see that there is no reason at all other than the body is doing the action of walking. That is the only reason. Because the body is walking, your mind labels and believes, “I’m walking.” Thus, the I is merely labeled by mind. Here, you can see clearly that the base, the aggregates, and the label, I, are different. You see the difference between the base, the aggregates, and the label, I, very clearly, and suddenly, the label I becomes very subtle; so subtle that it seems almost non-existent. It’s not that it doesn’t exist, but suddenly, to your mind, it is as if it doesn’t exist. You can differentiate the base, the aggregates, from the label, I, but much more than that, suddenly, for your knowledge, the label I seems like it is non-existent. It is not non-existent, but it becomes so subtle that it seems as if it is.
When the limbs of the body are moving, you call it “walking.” The action walking is merely imputed by the mind’s making up the label “walking.” Here again you can see clearly that the base (the limbs of the body moving) and the label (walking) are different.
Similarly, certain marks on the ground indicate that some people passed that way. In dependence upon this, your mind makes up the label “road.” Without those marks, there’s no reason for you to make up the label “road,” nothing to cause your mind to make up the label “road.” However, when you see the base—those marks on the ground indicating that other people have gone that way—it causes your mind to make up the label “road.” The base and the label “road” are different. Road is merely imputed by mind. Be mindful of this process with every object you encounter and every action you do throughout the day.
Similarly, what causes you to make up the particular label “tree”? There is no reason other than your seeing that particular phenomenon that has a trunk, branches and leaves and can be used to make things or burned to make fire. Seeing that particular phenomena causes your mind to make up the label “tree,” not “fire,” “water,” “wind,” or “earth.” You see the base, and your mind merely imputes the label “tree” in dependence upon it. Aside from the tree that exists by being imputed in this way, no other tree exists. There is no tree existing from its own side.
The tree is not there on the base. There are lots of trees at Vajrapani Institute, but there is no tree on that base. There is no tree on that association of the trunk, branches and leaves. But there is a tree at Vajrapani. In fact, there are lots of trees here! However, there is no tree stuck on the base. The tree appearing from there—the tree that cannot be differentiated from the base—is the refuted object. That is what you need to realize is empty, totally non-existent. As it is totally non-existent, you have to realize that that is how it is.
In such ways, train your mind in emptiness by thinking of subtle dependent arising, how everything is merely labeled by mind. Practice awareness of this. You can choose any of these methods, depending on which you find more effective.
Another way is to see the object of ignorance, the object of the concept of inherent existence, as false and empty. This applies to the I, action, object, all phenomena—anything that appears in your view. Here you practice differentiating the label from the base. You see the label—whatever phenomenon—is empty. It is not that it’s non-existent. It exists but it’s empty; it is empty of existing from its own side. Think of the examples. After realizing that what you labeled rope is really a snake, how do you feel about that object? When you realize that it’s a snake, how do you feel about the rope that you labeled before? How do you see that rope? Or use another example. After someone dies, people still talk about that person. However, that person does not exist. His or her collection of aggregates does not exist, so who or where is he or she? People talk about the label, the person, but how do you feel about that?
Another technique is to practice mindfulness of all phenomena—I, action, object, all sense objects—as being like a dream or a hallucination. All these inherently existing objects are a hallucination, a dream. You must make a subtle, but important distinction here. Inherently existing objects do not exist at all; they are a dream. However, conventionally existent objects are like a dream. They are not a dream. In other words, conventionally existent phenomena appear one way—as truly existent—but they do not exist as they appear. Similarly, dream objects appear real but do not exist in the way they appear.
In daily life, this mindfulness practice will help you when you face problems or difficulties. If a problem happens—for example, someone criticizes you—look at it like a dream. What is happening isn’t real. It is like having a problem in a dream. A different feeling arises in your heart; it is like someone causing you a problem in a dream but you are aware that it is a dream. How do you feel about that? How do you feel when you dream that someone is criticizing or abusing you, and at the same time you are aware that it is a dream, that it is not real. It doesn’t bother you. It doesn’t disturb your mind or cause anger to arise. Why? Because you know it’s not real.
Similarly, you can practice mindfulness that this is like an illusion created by a magician. Here, the magician is your own ignorance. What is like an illusion is the I, action, object, and all other phenomena appearing as not merely labeled by mind but as something real, appearing from there. In reality, there is no real enemy, no real problem, no real I who experiences problems. As the bodhisattva Togme Zangpo said in The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas,
All forms of suffering are like a child’s death in a dream.
Holding illusory appearances to be true makes you weary.
Therefore, when you meet with disagreeable circumstances,
See them as illusory—
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.
All the various sufferings and problems you have in life are like a child dying in a dream. You dreamed that you got married and had a child, and later that child died. You had a dream of your whole life; so many things happened, so many problems occurred. Even your body became old and your hair turned gray in the dream. But you didn’t recognize it as a dream and instead believed it was true. As a result, you suffered so much.
Even though Togme Zangpo spoke only of a child dying in the dream, he implies that your whole life with all its problems are like thirty, forty, or eighty years in a dream. It is very useful to reflect on this verse when you have problems in life, and reciting it is better than reciting a mantra, because you understand what it means. This is why it is very effective to recite a verse or a Dharma text to remind yourself of what to practice when problems arise. It changes your view of life by changing your concept. If your concept is that you are suffering or having problems, you feel miserable. If you change this concept, you have peace.
All this gives you an idea of how to meditate on emptiness. Whether you are in retreat or living a normal daily life, it is very important to practice bodhicitta and the wisdom understanding emptiness. These are the fundamental practices of the entire Mahayana teaching, and you can bring them to whatever you are doing. When you awaken in the morning, plan, “Today I will practice this technique for understanding emptiness.” The next day, think, “I will practice that one.” You do not need to divide the practices rigidly. Just use whichever technique is more beneficial for your mind at the time. All these techniques come to the same point.
Sometimes it may seem as if you are just saying the words “inherent existence” or “emptiness” without much understanding of what they mean. However, even if you cannot get the exact idea of emptiness in your meditation and it all seems like just a bunch of words, continue to meditate on emptiness by relying on and using these teachings. Since those words are unmistaken, each time you think of them, you leave a positive imprint on your mind. Even if you cannot practice precise meditation or concentration on emptiness, if you reflect on the unmistaken words, especially those of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, you still leave positive imprints on your mind-stream. Then, sooner or later, when the conditions of strong guru devotion, strong purification, and the collection of strong, extensive merit come together, then, one day, unexpectedly, experiences and realizations will happen. Cultivating realizations of the path requires many imprints, so be happy to plant those seeds in your mind-stream and do not be discouraged if your understanding does not grow as quickly as you would like.
