It might be a little bit late to do the walking meditation as it’s starting to get a little dark, but I think we can still try….

When you go from here, the meditation is the meditation on emptiness that I explained the other night. First you ask yourself, “What am I doing?” The answer is, “I’m walking.” You then ask, “Why do I say that I’m walking?” You then answer, “For no reason other than that my body is doing the action of walking. That’s it—nothing more than this.”

The reason is very important. Focus on the reason, “my body is walking.”

The I itself, which is doing the walking, exists. It’s not nonexistent, but it is a mere imputation of the mind. You need to totally change your view of the I. The previous one that appeared to you and in which you believed (and in which you have been believing for beginningless rebirths, basically) is the false I, the object to be refuted. Now here this has totally changed. It’s not that there’s no I at all; there is the I, but what it is and how it exists are unbelievably subtle.

With the first meditation, you see that there’s no real I, that the I is something extremely subtle. When you go for a walk, you can just focus on the awareness that the I is a mere imputation. It’s a very important meditation, so you can do just that for hours. It’s unbelievably worthwhile and powerful. In that way, these many hours of walking become the antidote to samsara and to all the oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause, delusion and karma. It becomes the direct remedy to the ignorance that is the root of samsara. It becomes the most powerful medicine for the sickness of the mind, ignorance. It is this ignorance, the root of samsara, that makes you die and then again be reborn and to experience all the sufferings over and over, which you have done numberless times in the past in the various realms. This meditation is the antidote to that ignorance. So, it is the most powerful medicine to eliminate the sickness of the mind, the ignorance that is the root of all the sufferings.

You can do that meditation, but also you can do the meditation that I explained last night, in which you go from the form aggregate down to the atoms and the particles of the atoms, recognizing that everything is a mere imputation. You see that nothing exists from its own side, that everything is totally empty. While you’re walking, you have the awareness that everything, from the body down to the particles of the atoms, is empty. Everything, including the self, is a mere imputation, merely imputed by mind. While you’re walking, you’re aware that everything is extremely subtle; there’s nothing solid, nothing real, nothing existing from its own side. Everything, from the self down to the seconds of consciousness and the split-seconds of consciousness, is merely imputed by mind, so nothing exists from its own side.

The third meditation is to see everything as a hallucination. At the moment we see everything as real, as existing from its own side, as not merely imputed by mind. We can walk with the awareness that all this is a total hallucination, and the object to be refuted, the gak cha. We can walk with mindfulness of the object to be refuted, of what is false.

You can see that you can do the meditation in various ways, but with any of them, you are basically meditating on emptiness. You still need to hear more on this subject. I know just two or three words that I can repeat, but there are so many root texts and commentaries on this subject that the monks study in the monasteries. Nowadays, unlike in Tibet, the nuns also study these texts. His Holiness has now asked the nuns to study philosophy, so that they can also become geshes—or maybe gesheness.

Anyway, I’ll tell you one last point in relation to the third meditation. If you let your mind hold on to whatever appears to you as true, you are creating the cause of samsara. All your concepts that all this is true become the cause of samsara. The moment you trust that what appears to you is true, you are creating the cause of samsara, the cause of all problems, of all the sufferings of death, rebirth, old age and sickness. This is what makes you die; this is the cause of dying.

So, instead of trusting in that, instead of believing that to be real, you have to change your mind and think in the totally opposite way. You have to look at all this, which is false, as false; you have to look at all this as hallucination. So far, during beginningless rebirths, we have been believing that which is false to be real; that’s why we always die and are reborn and continuously suffer. This is why we haven’t liberated ourselves from samsara nor been able to liberate others. This is why we have always just suffered during beginningless rebirths.

Therefore, to liberate yourself and to liberate others, you now have to think differently. You have to look at this view of everything as not merely labeled by mind, as existing from its own side, as false, as not true. You have to think that this is not true and look at it as not true. You have to look at that which is a hallucination as a hallucination. You have to look at that which is false as false. You have to think about exactly what it is.

So, when our mind thinks what is appearing to us is not true, that is the total opposite to ignorance. That then becomes the cause to achieve liberation; that leads to liberation. It’s very subtle, but when somebody thinks that, it shatters samsara. It becomes like dropping an atomic bomb on samsara, the continuity of the contaminated aggregates caused by karma and delusion.

When you are meditating on emptiness, the moment you realize emptiness, there is no conventional truth appearing, just emptiness.

The conclusion is that if you say that you have been meditating on emptiness or studying emptiness for years and years, but in your everyday life you always believe everything—from the aggregates down to the particles of atoms and split-seconds of consciousness, as I mentioned yesterday—is true, there has been no meditation on emptiness. You may have been meditating on or reciting the words of emptiness, but you’ve not actually been meditating on emptiness. Your mind has not been touching emptiness, but constantly becoming ignorance, the cause of samara.

So, it’s a little late now and has become dark. But when you come back, you could change to Zen meditation. Bonpo or Zen. You could think that there’s no self, there’s no place, there’s no meditation, there’s nothing. You could come back with nothing. But I think you have to have dinner. Anyway, I’m just joking.

So, we’ll do a little bit of walking meditation, then maybe we can do another one tomorrow. If we start earlier, we can go further. Otherwise, at night, people might think you are holding a demonstration, a silent one. Maybe to help the birds and insects in the forest to understand about Tibet.

When you come back, come back with bodhicitta. Think that all your samsaric happiness of the three times—all your past happiness (and past doesn’t mean just from birth but all the happiness you have had from beginningless rebirths), all your present happiness and all your future happiness—and your ultimate happiness of liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause and enlightenment are received by the kindness….

[There is a sudden loud noise from the sound system.]

I think this is very good for meditation. It’s like the special practice of chod, or slaying the ego. In chod you invite the spirits, and they then cause all kinds of violent disturbance. At that time, your ego, the object of ignorance, is affected and becomes bigger and bigger, like blowing up a balloon. You’re then supposed to meditate on emptiness. It’s a way to recognize the object of ignorance more easily and quickly, and you’re then able to realize emptiness more quickly. Chod practice is a quick way to recognize the object of ignorance and to realize it’s empty. When the spirits come and create a lot of violent disturbance, many meditators are able to recognize the object of ignorance, the object to be refuted , and then realize emptiness. It’s a special, quick way to do that.

It’s similar here with this noise. When the noise happens, fear suddenly arises, which makes the emotional I arise. (Emotional I is the Western psychological term for the truly existent I or the object of ignorance.)

[There is more loud noise from the microphone.]

So, it is similar with this noise. Even though it’s not chod practice, with those particular prayers, it’s a quick way to recognize the object of ignorance and to realize emptiness.

Anyway, while you are walking back, think that you receive all your happiness of the three times—past, present and future—by the kindness of every single sentient being: every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every asura being, every sura being and every intermediate state being.

Also think about how your happiness is received from every single sentient being. All your happiness of the three times came from your own good karma, and your good karma is the action of Buddha. There are two actions of Buddha: one is possessed by buddhas themselves and the other is within us sentient beings. All virtuous thought is the action of Buddha.

So, good karma, the action of Buddha, came from Buddha. (I guess that you could also say that it came from Dharma.) Buddha came from bodhisattva; bodhisattva came from bodhicitta; bodhicitta came from great compassion; and great compassion is generated in dependence upon the kindness of the existence of suffering sentient beings; therefore, it came from each and every single suffering sentient being: every single hell being, every single hungry ghost, every single animal, every single human being, every single asura, every single sura. Great compassion is generated in dependence upon every single obscured, suffering sentient being.

So, all your numberless past, present and future happiness, including all the realizations and enlightenment, is received by the kindness of every single hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human being (which includes every person here), asura and sura. Think of this, and then think how every single sentient being is most kind, most precious.

It has now become dark, but as you’re walking back, think, “I’m leading all sentient beings to enlightenment.” After meditating on the kindness of sentient beings, thinking how they are the most kind, most precious ones in your life, you keep your mind always in this awareness of how they are most kind and most precious. And what you’re doing is benefiting them by leading them to enlightenment. You can think that you are first and visualize behind you all the sentient beings that you are leading. Think that you are bringing all sentient beings to enlightenment.

When you are walking, there’s a meditation you can do to transform it into circumambulation. Milarepa mentioned that while you are walking, you can visualize that the whole world is on your right side, which means that you are circumambulating all the holy objects: all the gurus, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, statues, stupas and scriptures. All the holy objects are there on your right side, and you’re circumambulating them. Milarepa said, “I have a method so that while I’m eating, it becomes tsog offering and while I’m walking, it becomes circumambulating.” (I can’t remember the last part of the quotation.) Whether you’re jogging or running, if you’re able to meditate in this way, it then becomes circumambulation; it then becomes virtue, Dharma.

So, as you walk it’s very good to be mindful of how every sentient being is most kind and most precious. You first think of the reason and then keep your mind on that. You then think that you are leading them to enlightenment. With that awareness, you then walk.

In this way your body is practicing Dharma. The action of your body, walking, becomes Dharma and the cause of enlightenment because of your thought to benefit sentient beings. It becomes the cause of the highest success: cessation of all the sufferings and defilements and completion of all the qualities. With your speech, you can also recite mantras. Don’t just keep quiet but chant mantras so that with your speech you are also practicing Dharma. You can recite mantras for purification, to purify negative karma and collect extensive merit, and you can chant OM MANI PADME HUM to develop compassion for all living beings. And with your mind you can motivate in the way I mentioned.

In this way, your body, speech and mind are all three practicing Dharma. Since everything that your body, speech and mind is doing is done for sentient beings, everything becomes the cause of enlightenment.

Because it’s now dark, it will be very difficult to walk outside. Is there somewhere you can go around or not? Otherwise, it doesn’t matter—we’ll do it tomorrow. If not, then the day after tomorrow; if not, then the day after that. If not, then next year.

[Ven. Paloma suggests that it’s possible to go around the outside of the building.]

It needs to be a large open space so that it’s easy to go around; otherwise, it will be crowded. Otherwise, you can do it tomorrow. Or otherwise, you can visualize doing it….

The first thing is to generate a bodhicitta motivation. That’s most important. Think, “The purpose of my life is to free all the sentient beings—all the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, suras and intermediate state beings—from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment; therefore, I’m going to do this walking meditation and meditate on emptiness and bodhicitta for all those from whom I receive all my happiness of the three times.” In that way, dedicate it for everybody, for every sentient being.

You can also chant the mantras loudly, so that the sentient beings around here, whether birds, animals, insects or human beings, can hear them and plant seeds for enlightenment. Hearing the mantras plants seeds of enlightenment, and in time, they will be able to achieve enlightenment from that. Chanting loudly has great benefit for the sentient beings who are around here, including also the spirits. That means you can bring many sentient beings to enlightenment by planting the seeds of enlightenment. It can start from that. After some time, these animals and other beings will be reborn as human beings and meet the Dharma.

You can also chant as a group. But the main practice is to actually meditate. The most important thing is to do that meditation. Then, if you’re able to chant mantras on top of that, that’s very good. If your body, speech and mind can all three create not only Dharma but the cause of enlightenment, it’s very good.

Somebody who knows where to go should lead. We will come back tomorrow. We will come back next year….

It’s good to go fast, especially if you are circumambulating a stupa or another holy object, so that you can collect more merit.

We will now chant OM MANI PADME HUM.

[Rinpoche leads the group in chanting manis.]

“Due to all the merits of the three times collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, by all the sentient beings, including especially the bodhisattvas, and by the buddhas, which are empty, may the I, who is empty, achieve Compassion Buddha’s enlightenment, which is empty, and lead all sentient beings, who are empty, to that Compassion Buddha’s enlightenment, which is empty, by myself alone, who is also empty.”