Separating from the Four Clingings
[Rinpoche and students recite Prayers Before Teachings]
I try to chant the Lion-face Dakini for people who have obstacles. [The mo] comes out to do Lion-face Dakini. I did the retreat, but I don’t think I can do the initiation. Pray here to complete your Dharma practice in this life and I’ll pray for that too. It is basically explained to pacify obstacles to benefit our mind for sentient beings. I make a general prayer to complete our Dharma practice. I did the retreat in Switzerland many years ago, then I did the fire puja in Manjushri Institute London.
[Rinpoche and the students recite The Foundation of All Good Qualities, the short mandala, Request to Turn the Wheel of Dharma and Refuge and Bodhicitta]
One question or half a question? No questions, then you can ask in the next life.
Student: Is the buddha’s mind permanent?
Rinpoche: It is said that in general, buddha is permanent, but we can’t say a particular buddha is permanent. In general, buddha is permanent but a particular buddha is not permanent. I don’t think you can say Guru Shakyamuni Buddha is permanent. But general buddha always exists, so it is permanent. I wouldn’t say the buddha’s mind is permanent. Maybe your mind is permanent.
Your beard is permanent! Your beard will stay until even after you are reborn. Even after a few lifetimes your beard will stay!
Lama Tsongkhapa wrote A Hymn of Experience of the Graduated Path to Enlightenment, Lamrim Nyamgyur in Tibetan. This is the essence of Dharma. He wrote many other extremely important philosophical texts but the essence is Lamrim Chenmo, his most important commentary. Then, there is his Middle-length Lamrim, where the essence is discussing how to negate the wrong views. Then, the short lamrim is A Hymn of Experience. Even though it’s short, it’s both deep and vast. Then, he wrote the Three Principal Aspects of the Path to Enlightenment, Lam Tso Nam Sum, the essence of the entire Dharma—renunciation, bodhicitta and right view.
You have to understand that Lama Tsongkhapa [divides the path] into these three, but in the Nyingma and Kagyü tradition there are four aspects—I don’t know the exact words—and each stops one of the four negative thoughts.
The first negative thought is attachment to this life, the second is attachment of future lives’ samsara, the third is the self-cherishing thought and the fourth is the root of samsara, the ignorance that holds the I as truly existent. These are the four negative thoughts and there are four corresponding aspects that stop these four negative thoughts.
In the Sakya tradition, it is Parting from the Four Clingings, Zhenpa Zhi Drel:
If you cling to this life, you are not a practitioner;
If you cling to the three realms, that is not renunciation;
If you cling to self-interest, you are not a bodhisattva;
If grasping arises, it is not the view.20
“If you are attached to this life, you are not a practitioner.” Even though we are reading and reciting Dharma texts, circumambulating temples, reciting mantras and prayers all the time, doing a lifetime retreat in a solitary place without seeing people—whatever we are doing, because all of these are done with attachment to this life, nothing is Dharma and we are not a Dharma practitioner. I wouldn’t say “a religious person.” I think it’s better to say a “Dharma practitioner.” Only when we renounce attachment to this life are we a Dharma practitioner.
Then it says, “If you cling to the three realms, that is not renunciation.” While we are attached to future lives’ samsara, it is not renunciation. We don’t have the cause to achieve liberation from samsara. Whatever we do—meditation, reading texts, reciting mantras twenty-four hours a day—unless it is done with the renunciation of samsara, nothing becomes the cause of liberation from samsara.
The next one is the self-cherishing thought. “If you cling to self-interest, you are not a bodhisattva.” If we cherish the self, meaning we cherish the I, whatever we do—meditating, reciting texts, going around stupas, even meditating our whole life in a solitary place without seeing anybody, without sleeping, without eating—if we do all that with the worldly self-cherishing thought, we don’t have bodhicitta, so none of those actions becomes a cause of enlightenment. We might look like a Dharma practitioner from the outside, practicing with unbelievable zeal, but if our mind is not pure, if our mind is a selfish mind, there is no bodhicitta and none of our actions becomes the cause of enlightenment. No matter how we look to other people, in reality we are motivated by the self-cherishing thought, not bodhicitta. Then, nothing becomes the cause of enlightenment, even though our whole life is spent doing retreat, doing meditation.
Finally, Parting from the Four Clingings says, “If grasping arises, it is not the view.” That means grasping onto the I as truly existent, as existing from its own side, as existing by nature. In common language, we say that the I is “real.” We are holding onto the I as real. So, similarly, even though we spend our whole life doing retreats or meditating, doing all these things that look like incredible Dharma practice to outside people who don’t have clairvoyance and can’t know our mind, in reality none of these things become right view, because all those things are done holding onto the I as truly existent, as real. All these things might look religious, might look like Dharma from the outside, but without the right view, with the wrong view that holds the I as real, nothing becomes an antidote to samsara, nothing becomes a remedy to eliminate the root of samsara, ignorance. Everything becomes a support [to that ignorance] while we continue to believe the I is real.
Instead of cutting our ignorance, all these practices further develop our ignorance. The one before was cherishing the I, and this one is holding onto the I as truly existent. As the text says, “If grasping arises, it is not the view,” it is not meditating on emptiness.
Avoiding the Wrong Meditation on Emptiness
I want to tell you one thing. It might be helpful for meditating on emptiness. For example, [we can think we are meditating on emptiness] without at all touching the false I, the real I, the I that does not exist at all. We never touch that one, we leave it there, kind of like we are taking care of it. But we look at the merely labeled I, the general I, and see that the hair is not the I, the skin is not the I, the blood is not the I, the veins are not the I, the bones are not the I. No piece [of our body]—tongue, nose, tooth, ear, brain, heart, down to the toes—is the I, so there is no I. The I is nowhere on these aggregates; it’s not on the top of the hair, on the hands, on the belly, on all the pipi and kaka, on the legs. The I is nowhere there. All that is a wrong meditation on the I. You have to know this. Write it down! You have to know that is a wrong meditation on emptiness.
So many people think that this is the right meditation on emptiness. Even many monks who are excellent in debate, who are very wise in the Dharma, think that this is the right meditation on emptiness. No! This is not a meditation on emptiness. I once said to a well-known teacher that I don’t know Dharma, I didn’t study philosophy, that I’m lazy and I asked him if that is the meditation on emptiness. The geshe said of course this is meditation on emptiness, that it is well known among the people who debate in the monasteries. I said I wanted to see the text that says this is the meditation on emptiness. He told me he would show me the next day at lunchtime, but he couldn’t find it. It’s very funny.
If we are not careful, if we are not precise, if we ourselves don’t analyze, we can make mistakes like this, thinking this wrong meditation on emptiness is correct, which leads to nihilism, thinking that there is no I at all. But I don’t think we would have great fear that there is no I.
Lama Tsongkhapa used the example of a vase. When we check where the vase is, not the real vase, the truly existent vase, there is nothing. We didn’t touch the vase that is merely labeled. “That is not vase. This is not vase. The neck is not vase. The belly is not vase. The bottom is not vase.” We cannot find the vase. That is nihilism; we are falling into nihilism. We are falling into the nihilism that destroys the dependent arising. The vase exists because the valid base of the vase exists.
Similarly, because the valid base, the aggregates, exists, the I exists. The I exists because the valid base, the aggregates, exists. The reason is that. We must know the reason why it exists—because the valid base exists. Then what is labeled, tag cho, what is the label exists. Lama Tsongkhapa said when we don’t find the vase, we fall into nihilism destroying the vase.
The vase exists in mere name, merely labeled by the mind on a valid base. The definition of “vase” is a round thing with a neck, belly and bottom, which has the feature of holding water and is able to function as that. That is the meaning or definition of vase. That is the valid base. Then tag cho, the label, what is labeled “vase” exists. [But in the above meditation, the analysis] didn’t touch the false vase, the truly existent vase, what is called the “real” vase in ordinary language, which is expressed in philosophical terms as the truly existent vase, the vase existing from its own side or the vase existing by nature. It never touched that.
I’m saying that I don’t think great fear would arise from that because the real vase or the real I is kept. Because we haven’t researched the merely labeled I, just the general I, I don’t think not finding it will cause us deep fear because we haven’t hit ignorance, the root of samsara. The object of ignorance is always kept.
But when we look for the real I and don’t find it, for a lower intelligent person, deep fear arises when the meditation works on the correct point. When it hits the ignorance we have suffered from for beginningless rebirths, deep fear arises even for lower intelligent bodhisattvas.
For higher intelligent bodhisattvas, great joy arises. Tears come; their hairs stand on end. The other one, it doesn’t hit the ignorance. Not finding the mere I, the general I, we destroy the dependent arising of the existing vase and fall into nihilism. It destroys that, making it appear that there is no vase there. There is a vase that exists but we fall into nihilism, thinking the vase is not there. That means the I is not there, nothing exists. There is no Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, no karma. I don’t exist, you don’t exist, nothing exists. It becomes like that.
Then, if we have cancer, cancer doesn’t exist. If the sickness doesn’t exist, why do we take the medicine? What are we taking the medicine for? And the medicine doesn’t exist. It is like that. If there is no hunger, why do we eat food? If there is no body, why do we need to eat? We only need to eat if there is a body, but if there is no body why do we need to eat? If there is no mind, why do we look for pleasure? Why do we play music? If there is no mind, why do we sleep? Why do we need to sleep for many hours if we don’t have mind? It’s very funny.
Lama Tsongkhapa said there is the appearance—the dependent arising object—and the object to be refuted, gag cha, and these two are not differentiated. Because of that, the appearance and the object to be refuted appear as real. Everything appears as real. These two are not differentiated. That is what Lama Tsongkhapa explained.
You must write it down. That is wrong meditation on emptiness. The wrong meditation on emptiness happens like that. I’m just giving you one example of meditation. You look for the table. The top part is not the table, the leg is not the table; any part is not the table. The leg is the leg of the table, not the table, just as our leg is not us. Do you understand? Our hand is not us. So, this leg of the table is not the table. Wherever we point to on the table is not the table.
In that way, we can’t find the table. We look at the table but we can’t find any table there. [Concluding there is therefore no table,] we fall into nihilism, destroying the table that actually exists, that exists in mere name, that exists merely labeled by the mind. It exists because there is a valid base, something that supports things, that is there. That is the valid base, and therefore the table exists.
Because this exists which holds things up, the table exists merely labeled by the mind. The table is there because the base of the table is there. That is how the table exists. When we don’t look for the real table but where the table exists, we see that nothing is the table, not even the whole group. So, it looks like there is no table. That destroys the table that does actually exist, that exists in mere name because there is a valid base that holds things. It destroys that. That is falling into nihilism.
In one text I saw that if we believe in that and fall into nihilism, we create the same heavy negative karma as having killed one hundred million people. Falling into nihilism like that, thinking the table does not exist, we believe in nothing. That would mean that nothing at all exists, as I told you before.
If we look back at the table again, there seems to be a real table appearing from there. On this base, there is a real table appearing to us from there, but when we search for the real table, where is it? Piece by piece, every corner, every atom—nothing is the real table. Even all together, it is not the real table. When we check like that whether there is a real table appearing from there—from the base or on the base—it cannot stay. It cannot stay. It is shigpa, which means dissolved. The correct word is shigpa. It has the meaning of how we have been holding onto the real I from beginningless rebirths, our whole life, day and night, whatever we are doing, eating or sleeping, thinking this I is so important, but when we realize emptiness or even when we start to see emptiness, when we start to see that the real I that we have been holding onto is false, suddenly there is nothing to hold onto, there is nothing there. We have nothing to hold onto when we start to realize emptiness.
There is no real I there; it is dissolved, shigpa. I’m not sure if that is the right word. When we put medicine in the water, it dissolves, but maybe some small pieces remain; it’s not completely dissolved. Shigpa is when we realize it is false. The first time we recognize that it is false, that it is not real, it cannot last, it cannot stay by itself. It becomes nonexistent, shigpa.
We have been cherishing this real I, holding onto it from beginningless rebirths, day and night, all the time. When we eat, when we fight, when we praise, when we criticize—whatever we do, there is a real I there all the time. We do so many things to not let this real I get hurt and to get happiness for this real I. Day and night, all the time, our whole life is trying to not let this real I get hurt, to not have problems, but for it to enjoy, to have happiness for this I. But when we start to realize emptiness, there is nothing there. We see it is totally our hallucination. There is nothing there.
We have been totally hallucinated, totally deceived by ignorance. Like that, the real table of the second meditation, the real table is not there, shigpa; it’s not there. Not even an atom is there. That is emptiness. That is the realization of emptiness. It is like that second meditation, not the first one.
Some time ago, I think in Holland, I taught that meditation, and then I guided the meditation like that, how the first [way of looking at the I] is wrong and the second one is right meditation. That meditation is a very good one.
Licking Honey from the Sword
Why am I talking about this? Going back? To the root? [Ven. Ailsa: You did a quote from A Hymn of Experience.] Yes, yes, sorry, I must go through this. The quote [from A Hymn of Experience by Lama Tsongkhapa] is:
If you do not put effort into contemplating true sufferings— the faults of samsara—
You will not develop the wish for liberation.
If you do not contemplate true origins—the steps for entering samsara—
You will not understand how to cut the roots of samsara.
Therefore, rely on weariness, definite emergence from samsara;
And cherish the knowledge of what binds you to samsara.
You, the perfect guru, practiced in this way.
I, who am seeking liberation, will also practice in this way.21
Lama Tsongkhapa’s words are very tasty, very extensive and very tasty, very profound. Unless we reflect on the shortcomings of true suffering, [we won’t be able to search for liberation].
You went through the meditations on all the sufferings of samsara together—the suffering of pain, the suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering. I described the suffering of change, samsaric pleasure, some days ago. Samsaric pleasure is like on the honey on [the edge of] a sword. We lick it and there is the taste of honey, but it cuts our tongue; it is like that. Samsaric pleasure is like poisonous food. If we eat it, it kills us.
Samsaric pleasure is like the worm the fisherman pushes onto the hook and puts in the water to lure the fish. It moves so the fish, thinking there is something to eat, rushes to it with so much grasping and gets hooked. Instead of enjoying the worm, it gets hooked. It is caught and killed and its skin is pulled off.
Samsaric pleasure is like the bait that hunters use. If they are hunting animals, they put some meat there to catch the animal or bird. When the animal goes there because it thinks there is something to eat, it is caught. Then, the hunter picks it up, kills it and eats it. Like that, samsaric pleasure, attachment, totally cheats us.
Samsaric pleasures are like that. They are like honey on the sword or sharp knife, honey that when we lick, we are cut. This is because the nature of samsaric pleasures is suffering; they cannot last, they become the suffering of pain. As I mentioned, when a greater suffering stops, another smaller suffering begins [which we label “pleasure”] but if it continues, the sense of suffering increases from small, increasing more and more until it becomes the suffering of pain. The feeling of it being pleasure doesn’t last.
It cannot increase like Dharma happiness because it is in the nature of suffering. Dharma happiness can increase; with it we can achieve liberation and enlightenment, but samsaric pleasure is not like that. We have been trying samsaric pleasures from beginningless rebirths up to now, but still we have never had satisfaction. Attached to them, we can never free ourselves from samsara. That is why from beginningless rebirths up to now we have been suffering in the six realms of samsara, as you meditated.
I’m just telling you how to meditate on the suffering of change, how it is in the nature of suffering. There are many examples like that. I’ve just given you a rough idea, a few examples. That is just how to meditate on how samsaric pleasures are the suffering of change; how they are in the nature of suffering.
What Lama Tsongkhapa said is the main thing. “If you don’t attempt to think of the shortcomings of true suffering, seeking liberation doesn’t happen exactly.” Then I added this so we know how to meditate on it. When we only think suffering is the suffering of pain, there are only problems. We don’t know all the other aspects of true suffering, how because we don’t know the suffering of change is in the nature of suffering, we believe it is real pleasure, and we have no idea about pervasive compounding suffering.
Then the liberation we are seeking is very limited. We are just [trying to be free from] some problems, those we know about. We don’t know about all the rest. We think liberation from samsara is only being free from these few problems. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] That’s very limited, very, very limited. We don’t know what liberation is. Because we have no idea what we are supposed to look for, we can’t achieve liberation.
“If you do not contemplate true origins—the steps for entering samsara—you will not understand how to cut the roots of samsara.” True origins refers to the all-arising evolution of samsara, how all suffering comes from karma and delusions. If we don’t know that, we don’t know how to cut the root of samsara. We don’t know how to cut or eliminate the root of samsara because we don’t know the cause of suffering. Unless we know the cause of suffering, we won’t know how to cut the root of samsara. Then, we don’t know how to be free from samsara at all. This is so important.
“Therefore, rely on weariness, definite emergence from samsara; and cherish the knowledge of what binds you to samsara.” Understanding of what binds us to samsara is so important.
[The teachings on the twelve links of dependent origination] list three delusions: ignorance, craving and grasping. There are these three delusions and two actions: karmic formations and becoming. Out of ignorance, karmic formations arise. That is one action. Then, out of craving and grasping, the second action arises, becoming. Becoming is signified by a pregnant woman, making the imprint manifest powerfully as the birth, to become a human birth.
This is the way the consciousness goes from one life to another. Of the link, name and form, name is the mind and form is the body. Then, there are the six sense bases, then contact, then feeling, and then birth and old age and death. These are the seven results. During that time, again from ignorance and craving and grasping, so many links of karmic formations and becoming arise. Even in one day there are these three delusions and two actions, causing the seven results to happen. For us now, birth is done and old age is happening, so death is the only thing that is left, the only thing left to happen.
Even in one day so many sets of twelve links are started and so many of the seven results are experienced, so many in one day, in one hour, in one minute, in one second. So many sets of twelve links are started in the evolution of samsara through not practicing mindfulness in emptiness. As I mentioned, we do that in three ways, looking at everything—the I, action and object—as the hallucination that it is. But we are not doing that, not seeing the mere I, the mere action, the mere object, not seeing how all are merely labeled by the mind. By not practicing that mindfulness, we completely follow ignorance, where everything appears real. [That false reality] is decorated, projected by ignorance. Then, we totally believe a hundred percent that everything is real.
We start [one set of] the twelve links, the evolution of samsara, each day so many times, each hour so many times, every minute and second, started by ignorance. I’m supposed to mention this later but now is OK. What I normally mention is this. There is a prison, but even if we get free from this prison, there is another prison outside that, and if we get free from that prison, there is another prison outside of that one. So, it is endless. We start with the three delusions and two actions. They happen, so many in one day, in one hour, in one minute, because we don’t realize emptiness, we don’t practice seeing things as illusions. There is no practice, not even mindfulness meditation, the awareness is not there. So, we completely believe that what is projected or decorated by ignorance is real.
The evolution of the twelve links ties us to samsara endlessly. Every day we create numberless sets of links. That is how we suffer in samsara endlessly.
Lama Tsongkhapa said, “You, the perfect guru, practiced in this way. I, who am seeking liberation, will also practice in this way.” We recite it like that. Sorry. How much time? [Ven. Robina: Lots of time. Plenty of time.]
This is how to meditate on the Wheel of Life. The conclusion. Then, we know how it is so important to realize emptiness, to meditate every day on emptiness. That is one very important meditation. The other one is bodhicitta. If these two can be our main practice, that makes our life the best! Our life is the best! If people ask us what we are practicing and we say bodhicitta and emptiness, rather than saying we are doing dzogchen or chakras, winds and drops or something like that, then we are really rich. Then, we are doing the most important Dharma practice.
As I have read before, Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche said [in Praise to Bodhicitta]:
[159] If you lack bodhicitta you will not become enlightened
Even if you restrain from wickedness,
Even if you gather together wholesome dharmas,
Even if you meditate in the channels, winds and drops.
No matter how much we do of all those other meditations, we can’t achieve enlightenment. They are just big names to sound to other people’s ears, but we can’t achieve enlightenment with them. Some people like very much to say they are doing very high things, like high tantric practice and so forth. Just to be free from samsara and achieve liberation is [not] enough as a purpose of life, we must free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment by ourselves. Therefore, we must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, we must listen to the teachings.
That is what my teacher, Geshe Sopa, said. He was Lama Yeshe’s teacher from Tibet. Geshe Sopa was an outstanding, very learned teacher in Sera, Ganden and Drepung to many tens of thousands [of monks]. Even in Sera alone there are seven thousand.
How the Buddha Teaches Us
Maybe I’ll begin with doing this. I won’t mention everything that is said here, just some. Why did the Buddha descend in this world. What is the purpose? The purpose is to liberate sentient beings from samsara, from samsaric sufferings, and to lead them to liberation and the state of omniscience. That is the only reason the Buddha descended in this world. There is no other reason at all. It is said in a sutra:
The Great Ones do not wash away sin with water;
they do not rid beings of suffering with their hands;
they do not transfer realizations of suchness onto others.
They liberate by teaching the truth of suchness.22
Hindus wash their bodies with the water of the River Ganga, thinking they purify everything. It is not in that way. The buddhas do not wash away negative karma with water. And they do not take out the suffering of transmigratory beings with their hands, which means like taking out a thorn with the hands when it’s in the body. That is not the way the Buddha liberates sentient beings from suffering. And they don’t “transplant their realizations into us.” It’s not like taking a monkey’s brain and transplanting it into a human or replacing [diseased organs] with healthy ones. That is not how buddhas do it, by transplanting their realizations into us sentient beings. The way the Buddha liberates us from the sufferings of samsara is “by teaching the truth,” the ultimate nature, emptiness. That is what is said in sutra by the Buddha.
To subdue the minds of the sentient beings, the sentient beings who are objects to be subdued by the Buddha, the Buddha has revealed the 84,000 teachings. The four noble truths are the basis, the root of the 84,000 teachings. After he became enlightened, the very first teaching of the Buddha was what is called the first turning of the wheel of Dharma, which reveals the four noble truths, showing us exactly what is to be practiced and what it to be abandoned.
In Maitreya Buddha’s teachings, Do Dei Gyen [Ornament of the Sutras], the example given is [of disease and cure]. The disease is what is to be known; the cause of the disease is what is to be abandoned; the cure is what is to be achieved and the medicine is the way to become cured. Like that, the four noble truths are: suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the true path. First, the truth of suffering is to be known, then the true cause of suffering is to be abandoned, the true cessation of suffering is what is to be actualized, and the true path to achieve that cessation is what is to be followed. Maitreya Buddha said that.
For example, in the world, when somebody is very sick, to become completely free, they must first know the essence of disease, the shortcomings of the disease. Then, they should look for the cause of the disease, where the disease came from. Then, to abandon it forever, they need to not just be cured of the disease but also of its cause. When they have generated the wish to be free from the sickness and its cause forever, they have to take the right medicine and for that they have to rely on a wise doctor. Only in this way can they become completely better, from both the disease and its cause.
For us sentient beings who are tormented by the sufferings of samsara, the kind Guru Shakyamuni Buddha taught true suffering, then he taught where that suffering comes from, from karma and delusions, which we need to abandon. Then, he taught the all-arising truth. After we have generated the wish to be free from all suffering, including its cause, to achieve that, the Buddha taught the true cessation. Then, he showed the graduated path, the true path, the method to achieve liberation.
That’s why in a sutra it is mentioned,
This is true suffering for the arya beings.
This is true cause of suffering for the arya beings.
This is true cessation of suffering for arya beings.
This is true path for the arya beings.
It is explained like that.
For example, being under the control of the true cause of suffering, karma and delusions, without break from one life to another life, we continuously get reborn in samsara. That’s how we sentient beings circle in samsara. By ceasing the cause of suffering, karma and delusions, sentient beings become free from the suffering of samsara. To show the details, the Buddha revealed the twelve dependent-related limbs, ten drel yan lag chu nyi. That is the evolution.
Then vice versa, vice verse? [Ven. Robina: Vice versa.] Vice versa, [taking the twelve links in reverse], old age and death comes from rebirth; rebirth comes from the becoming; becoming comes from craving and grasping and so forth. Maybe put it this way. Of the seven sufferings, besides birth and old age and death, the others are [consciousness,] feeling, contact, six sense bases and name and form. All these seven results come from ignorance and craving and grasping, the three delusions, and the two actions, karmic formations and becoming.
Clarifying the twelve links, there are the Lesser Vehicle sutras, Differentiating the Twelve Dependent-Related Limbs and the Rice Seedling Sutra. In that sutra, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha holds a rice plant in his hand. The sutra said,
Venerable Shariputra then said to the bodhisattva mahasattva Maitreya, “Maitreya, here today, the Bhagavan, gazing at a rice seedling, spoke this aphorism to the bhikshus: ‘Bhikshus, whoever sees dependent arising sees the Dharma. Whoever sees the Dharma sees the Buddha.’”23
In that way, the twelve dependent-related limbs are explained in an external way and an internal way.
The outer dependent arising in the world is the cultivator, the farmer. The cultivator plants a rice seed, gathering water, minerals and heat to make the seed grow. From that, plants, leaves, flowers and fruit gradually arise. Because of depending on the previous ones, the later ones gradually arise. Without the previous ones, the later ones could not arise. In that way, the twelve dependent-related limbs, from ignorance up to old age and death, are explained.
OK. I’ll stop here. That was only to give a brief idea.
I’ll start this afternoon because I have to leave tomorrow morning. We’ll probably do a Vajrasattva initiation, probably, probably. Maybe you’ll get enlightened before I do the Vajrasattva initiation. You’ll become enlightened so I won’t need to do the Vajrasattva initiation. Or you’ll become an arhat by achieving liberation from samsara so I won’t need to do the Vajrasattva. I can just go to bed.
OK. Thank you.
[Dedication prayers]
OK. Thank you.
Notes
20 Mind Training (Wisdom Publications), p. 517. [Return to text]
21 See FPMT Essential Prayer Book, p. 127. [Return to text]
22 Quoted in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand (Wisdom Publications), p. 247. [Return to text]
23 See The Rice Seedling Sutra at read.84000.co/translation/toh210.html#UT22084-062-010-section-1. [Return to text]
