Meditating on the Nature of Causative Phenomena
[Rinpoche and students recite Prayers Before Teachings]
Because we have to meditate on kar ma [a star] and rab rib [defective view] to get a deeper understanding, I think it is good to explain it right now. What I explained yesterday or maybe the day before yesterday was something rough. This meditation is a very, very important meditation. Meditating on what the Buddha taught about this helps us realize the nature of causative phenomena, how they are in the nature of impermanence.
Usually, we hold them to be permanent; we believe they are permanent. We see things, including the I, as permanent. That is the wrong way of looking at them, because they are in the nature of impermanence, changing every second, even within a second. Due to subtle impermanence, due to causes and conditions, they don’t last, not even for a second. Things, causative phenomena, change even in a split second, including the I, action, object. Whatever is a causative phenomenon constantly changes.
Examples are a person’s body or a very attractive flower, but all the rest of the phenomena are like this. For example, this building changes; it doesn’t last. It changes second by second, even within a split second, due to causes and conditions.
Things change within every hour, every minute. [We can see] gross changes when things change day by day, week by week, year by year. For example, the flower’s color becomes dark. A rose blossoming looks very nice, but sooner or later it becomes kind of dark, old, no longer interesting like it once was. That is gradually happening. It is the same for the leaves of the trees. After some time they change color and fall. These are the gross changes we notice, but we don’t notice how things are changing day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second, even within a split second. We don’t notice, seeing things as sort of permanent. Without checking, without meditating on their impermanent nature, we see things as sort of permanent.
Meditating in this way is looking at the conventional nature of things, not the ultimate nature, leading us to realize impermanence. Then, by realizing emptiness, we are able to stop delusions arising, such as attachment, anger, ignorance and so forth. We can control the delusions by realizing what they are, their nature. And by continuing to develop on the path, that helps to gradually cease the delusions. Especially the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness helps stop them arising.
Meditating on impermanence, on the nature of causative phenomena—including on the I, action, object—helps to complete the path and achieve the everlasting, ultimate happiness, nirvana. Not only that, it helps to generate great compassion for sentient beings and then it helps to actualize bodhicitta, which leads to enlightenment. By completing the Mahayana path, we cease all suffering and obscurations, not only the gross obscurations but also the subtle ones, and we achieve full enlightenment. Therefore, the meditation on impermanence is so important, so important, so important.
I want to tell you this. Millionaires, billionaires, zillionaires… I don’t know if there are zillionaires. Are there zillionaires? [Ven. Robina: I don’t know.] You don’t know! Maybe you are a zillionaire. [Ven. Robina: No, Rinpoche. Not true.] Not in money but maybe in merits you can be a zillionaire. In merits—the cause of happiness, the cause of enlightenment—you can be a zillionaire. That’s what I think. I’m sorry to mention this.
Tibetan beggars with nothing, just begging every day for food, recite OM MANI PADME HUM with refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The best thing is reciting OM MANI PADME HUM, unless we recite the mantra just with attachment, just for the happiness of this life, for a long life or a healthy life or something. Then it isn’t holy Dharma, just worldly dharma. I usually explain it in that way.
There are exceptional actions [that become holy Dharma] such as circumambulating holy objects and making offerings with a deluded motivation. But people generally do things only with attachment clinging to this life, clinging to the happiness of this life. That is just delusion. Normal people in the world who don’t know the Dharma, whose only motivation is clinging to the happiness of this life, are the same as ants, frogs, insects. They all have the same motivation; there is no difference. Those people have a human body but only the body is different [from animals], the mind is the same. The mind is nothing different.
But we came to this Kopan course to understand the meaning of life, so our motivation is different from the common people in the world. We have a Dharma motivation, a motivation with the three great meanings: the lower, middle and higher motivations. This is what makes the life meaningful, not doing things with only attachment to the happiness of this life.
When we circumambulate holy objects such as statues or scriptures, or when we do prostrations, even if the motivation is not virtuous, by the power of the holy object, our actions become Dharma; they become cause of enlightenment.
Subtle Karma and Examining Our Life
There is a story. An old man only began to practice Dharma when he was eighty, achieving the transcendental arya path in that life, achieving nirvana, the true cessation of suffering. I won’t go through the details of the story, but I think I have to mention this. At home, his children teased this eighty-year-old man every day until he got so fed up with them, he decided to go to a monastery and become a monk, where it would be peaceful.
He went to the monastery and saw the arhat Shariputra, the abbot of the monastery, who was the Buddha’s disciple and expert in wisdom. Shariputra didn’t accept him, telling him he was too old, that he couldn’t memorize the texts or do service in the monastery. The old man was so sad, he beat his head on the main door of the monastery and cried and cried. Then he went to the park and cried. The Buddha can see every single sentient being every second no matter how far away they are. There are numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras, intermediate state beings, and the Buddha can directly see every sentient being, can read their minds, knows all their suffering, all their needs. He can see the whole method to gradually free sentient beings from lower realms’ suffering, then bring them to a higher rebirth and gradually reveal the higher and higher methods and bring them to enlightenment.
So, the Buddha saw the old man when he suddenly appeared in the park, and he asked the old man what had happened. He explained what happened at home and what happened when he came to the monastery and how the abbot said he didn’t have the karma to become a monk. Then, the Buddha said that he could see the old man had the karma to become a monk. Having completed the merits of wisdom and merits of virtue, the cause of dharmakaya and rupakaya, a buddha’s holy mind and buddha’s holy body, the Buddha could see this, which is something that Shariputra could not, because he had not completely abandoned the four causes of unknowing. Even though the higher arhats are free, liberated from oceans of sufferings of samsara, they haven’t purified the subtle obscurations, and therefore they have the four unknowing minds.
One is the inability to see the secret actions of a buddha. Even though arhats have incredible qualities and power—it is utterly unbelievable what they can do—they can’t see the secret actions of the buddhas.
The second one is their inability to see the subtle karma of sentient beings, such as the cause of a peacock’s feathers’ different colors. That is mentioned in the texts. We can also think about the causes of the many designs and colors there are on butterflies’ wings and the different colors and marks that our own bodies have. Some can be due to gross karma, but some are from subtle karma. The cause of the different colors of a butterfly is subtle karma. We can think about why this plant has to be like this, with this particular shape, and even how its tiny flowers have so many designs and so many colors, and so many designs within the colors. Why is it like this? Of course, when we see it as something nice, it can be good karma. That is OK. But to understand why it is like this is so subtle. My understanding is it is similar to the peacock’s feathers mentioned in the texts. The cause of all the small details is subtle karma.
The evolution of everything has a reason; it comes from karma. When people enjoy something, that enjoyment comes from their karma; if it is an unpleasant thing, it comes from negative karma, from the negative mind.
I think it is very interesting to go around and examine things, like those tiny flowers with so many designs and shapes. Where did they come from? How did they happen that way? I’m not going to talk much. That we enjoy and use them comes from our subtle karma. It is very interesting to examine the environment, to examine the plants, even the leaves, looking at the different shapes. The subject of karma is very interesting.
We don’t have to watch TV and movies the whole time; we can watch our life. We can walk around and examine how things happen, why they happen. It’s very interesting. Nothing exists from its own side; everything depends on causes and conditions. I find it incredibly interesting. When we look at plants and think, “This has come from my mind; nothing comes from its own side,” this is such an interesting thing to do. Having fun in life is not only watching TV and movies, not only relying on somebody else to make up the whole story.
This precious human life we have is short; we don’t have long. It’s not sure how long we have—how many years, how many weeks, how many days, how many hours. Life is so short. So, this is much more interesting. It is more fun to examine our life in this way. Then, that inspires us to do positive things. If we do healthy actions of body and speech, if we do positive, virtuous things, positive results, no matter how small, even enjoying a tiny flower, all these good things come from our good actions, from our good, healthy mind. They are a projection of that. If we have negative thoughts, all the unpleasant, sad things come from that mind.
Seeing this inspires us to develop our mind, to always have a positive, healthy mind, a virtuous mind. Then, everything turns out good. Our main success is developing our mind, especially a good heart. By developing a virtuous, positive mind, a Dharma mind, everything turns out good. That is the best success. That is how to make our life successful.
Otherwise, with a negative heart, with a cruel, selfish mind, we only think of ourselves. “When I can be happy? When I can be happy?” Then, everything turns out bad. “I don’t like this; I don’t like that.” Everything disturbs us. Other people don’t like us. Wherever we go, in the city or the countryside, even birds making noise outside disturb our selfish mind. If dogs bark, it irritates us. It’s like that.
I must go back! I must not walk around. I must go back to the subject!
I find it very interesting to check, to examine how everything comes from our mind. It inspires us. It doesn’t make us feel hopeless. It inspires us to meditate, to practice Dharma. Up to now, whatever positive things we have done, all that appears, all the beautiful and pleasant things we have experienced are like that.
The Four Unknowing Minds
So, what I was saying before was this. If we have attachment, not only attachment to future lives’ samsara but even attachment to this life’s happiness, that attachment obscures the mind. Instead of enlightening the mind, freeing the mind, it obscures the mind and then that becomes a cause for many other delusions to arise. That is the definition of attachment.
However, our actions of circumambulating, prostrating, making offerings to holy objects—not only to the Buddha but to statues and stupas—become virtue, become Dharma, the cause of enlightenment [even without a virtuous motivation]. That is an exception by the power of the holy object. What am I saying?
Except for those things, we need a virtuous motivation. A Tibetan beggar who has nothing, just a little food every day by begging, but who recites OM MANI PADME HUM with faith in Chenrezig, that beggar collects unbelievable merits. Even without bodhicitta, they collect more merits than there are drops of water in the ocean, more merits than all the sand in the ocean. Unbelievable merits are collected by reciting OM MANI PADME HUM even without bodhicitta.
As I mentioned to Robina—not Robini, Robin-a, Robi… what? Robina. Sometimes my mind forgets. Sometimes when I try to mention something correctly, it doesn’t happen. Robina. That person is a millionaire, a billionaire, a zillionaire in merits, but poor in money or facilities. A millionaire, a billionaire, a zillionaire, somebody who has money, the king of the country, those rich people, although they have so much wealth, they haven’t met the Dharma, they don’t know the Dharma, so they don’t create good karma. Only those who have a good heart, even though they might not believe in reincarnation and karma, with a good heart they collect merit. But that is not common; there are only a few like that.
They might be wealthy but they don’t have merit. It is so difficult to collect merit, the cause of happiness. Even if they collect a little merit, it is soon completely destroyed by anger. Then, dedicating to achieve enlightenment is impossible for them. It is so difficult to collect merit. Even if a little is done, it is soon destroyed by anger because our mind has been habituated with anger from beginningless rebirths. Our mind has not been habituated with the positive mind of patience but with anger. It arises so forcefully. Therefore, although we might collect a little merit, which is so difficult to collect, it is soon destroyed by anger.
So, that eighty-year-old man I was talking about. The Buddha checked who could look after him and saw it should be the arhat Maudgalyayana, his other main disciple who was expert in psychic powers. When the old man became a monk, in Maudgalyayana’s monastery he was teased by young monks, so he got fed up again and one day, without telling the abbot, he left and jumped in the river. Although he couldn’t see him in the monastery, Maudgalyayana was checking with his clairvoyance and saw him jumping in the river. He immediately went there and grabbed the old man. The old man was shocked and couldn’t speak for some time, but then he explained about how the young monks teased him. Realizing he needed to complete renunciation of samsara, he told the old man to hold the corner of his robe and then he flew into the sky, going on and on and on.
They finally landed on a huge mountain of bones. When the old man asked Maudgalyayana whose bones they were, Maudgalyayana replied that they were the bones of his previous life, that he had been a whale in his previous life. When the old man heard that, all his hairs stood up. Then, I think, from that he got renunciation of samsara.
There are six sufferings of samsara [listed]. They are that there is nothing definite in samsara; that there is no satisfaction in samsara. No matter how much we enjoy samsaric pleasures and enjoyments there is no satisfaction. Whatever body we take, we have to leave it again and again, numberless times. We have to join from one life to another life again and again. Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned that in the lamrim. Other lamrims mentioned going from one life to another but Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned the continuation of this mother of this life we were born to and how our mother had a mother and so on, the continuation of this mother, this mother’s mother, that mother’s mother, continuing so that they couldn’t be counted, even if the whole earth was made into juniper? [Student: Berries.] Juniper berries. Even if we made pills that size, we couldn’t count them.
The number of mothers we have had is countless. The whole earth made into pills [could be counted], but they would not be enough to count our mothers. In that way, Lama Tsongkhapa explained the shortcomings of samsara. Similarly, we can think of our father’s father and on and on. Even though it’s not mentioned, it’s the same. Our body comes from the sperm of our father and the blood, the egg, of our mother. They combined and our consciousness was conceived on that.
The way to think is that our body is a collection of our father’s sperm, our father’s father’s sperm and on and on. Even the whole earth made into juniper berry pills is not enough [to count that number]. And then our mother’s mother, our mother’s mother’s mother and on and on.
This body is a kind of old garbage collection from all the fathers and mothers. This is my own understanding, sorry, but it is what Lama Tsongkhapa explained. That is my own understanding, the way to be detached, to free our mind from delusion, the cause of samsaric suffering. To renounce attachment to our samsaric body, we should think in that way on the shortcomings of samsara. Then we can achieve nirvana, everlasting happiness, ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, forever, not just for a few days. It’s not like a few months’ holiday and then we come back to samsaric suffering. It is not like that; it is forever, forever! You have to understand that deeply—forever!
The fifth of the six sufferings is that after being high, we become low from life to life. In this life we are a king; in the next life we are a servant. Even if we are not born in the lower realms, in hell, we are still a servant. In this life, as a very rich king, everybody serves us, but then, in our next life we become a servant and have to work very hard. It not only changes from life to life, it also changes in this life, going from higher to lower. Nothing is definite in samsara.
After the desire realm and the form realm, there is the formless realm, with the levels of infinite sky, infinite consciousness, nothingness and the tip of samsara. With the tip of samsara, we have reached the highest point in samsara, but in our next life we can be born in the lower realms, even in the lowest hell realm. It can change.
The last of the six sufferings is that when we die, we die alone. We even have to leave our body. The consciousness alone goes to the next life; we can’t take anything with us. Even if we are a universal king, with millions and millions of subjects and servants, we can’t take even one with us to the next life. It is said in the teachings that the king with palaces and all these rich things and the beggar with only one stick, [are the same because] when we die we can’t even carry that stick to the next life, we have to leave it. Only our consciousness goes. When we are born, we can’t bring anybody with us. It is said that when we take a hair from a slab of butter, the butter doesn’t come, only the hair comes. It is like that with the consciousness.
[When Maudgalyayana showed the eighty-year-old man the bones of his former life], he realized how samsara is in the nature of suffering. He then renounced attachment to samsara and in that life he realized a direct perception of emptiness, which ceased the cause of samsara, karma and delusions, and then he achieved nirvana.
What was I saying?
The Buddha explained to the eighty-year-old how he did actually have the karma to become a monk. Shariputra couldn’t see it because it was so far in the past. It was way, way back, eons ago. At that time, that old man was a fly and there was a stupa with cow dung floating around the stupa, maybe in running water. It is not that [the fly thought] the stupa was so precious. It is not that the fly went to a monastery to study. It’s not like that. With attachment, the fly followed the smell of cow dung around the stupa, so it unintentionally went around the stupa. That became one circumambulation. And that was the cause for the old man to become a monk at eighty. This is what the Buddha explained.
That is why we, the FPMT organization, try to build big statues to create merit. Besides many small statues, we build large statues and stupas in Tibet and Nepal, even in the West. The larger it is, the more people come from far to see it. Then, this holy object can purify their negative karma and they can create good karma, the cause of enlightenment. So, for all those beings who come to see the holy object, it plants a seed in their mind to achieve enlightenment.
The bigger the statue is, the more people will come. Many years ago, we had a project to build a fifty-story statue of Maitreya Buddha, the future-time buddha, in Bodhgaya, but of course we built it in a dream. It didn’t happen. We didn’t manage to build it. Now, it has become two statues, not fifty stories, four stories. A part of the land went to the world organization. Because you can’t build high things on part of the land, only if you go out of there. We are now in the process of doing that. There will be a fifteen-story Maitreya statue in Kushinagar, where the Buddha passed away and where the future Buddha Maitreya will take birth. Shakyamuni Buddha took birth in Lumbini; Maitreya Buddha will take rebirth there. We have the plan for a fifteen-story statue there. It is not like Russia or other countries where it’s easy to build something. There are so many problems there.
We have already built many holy objects. Recently, we built a large stupa in Solu Khumbu, like the Boudha stupa, not the same size but smaller. It was built by the manager of Kopan, Tenpa Choden. He has so much merit, good luck, merit. He was able to build it so well to benefit so many sentient beings, to liberate them from samsara and bring them to enlightenment, even flies, insects, besides human beings. We have done big ones. So, we aim to do this continuously as much as possible.
That is not the only thing. The best way to benefit others, of course, is education, learning the Buddhadharma. To have realizations, we have to learn the Buddhadharma. We have to learn, reflect and then meditate in order to actualize the path. We have to bring into our heart what is explained in the books by the Buddha and by the pandits.
Sorry. I forgot. Way back, where did I start? How did I start? [Ven. Ailsa: Kar ma rab rib, about impermanence.]
I only explained two of the four unknowing minds. The third one is the inability to see things that happened a very long time ago, things so unbelievably distance. Even the higher arhats cannot see this. And the last one is the inability to see very long distances. So, one is long distances and one is distant by time, having happened unbelievably many eons ago. I think those two might be like that, but you can check.
There is a story how Maudgalyayana went to the hell realms with his psychic powers to visit the teacher Kundegyur, who was the founder of a sort of Hindu religion. When he met him, Kundegyur sent a message [through Maudgalyayana to his disciples], telling them to not go around his stupa because when they did, he suffered so much. [Not believing their teacher could be in hell,] the disciples didn’t believe the message Maudgalyayana gave them. To prove the message came from his teacher, they tested Maudgalyayana by asking him where his mother was. However, due to the great distance, Maudgalyayana was unable to see her. So, they refused to believe him and severely beat him. (In the text, the expression used is they “chopped him.”) They beat him so badly.
The point of this story is to show us how we need to achieve enlightenment to help sentient beings, to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment. Just becoming an arhat is not enough because the four unknowing minds are still not abandoned so we can’t completely help. Shariputra could not help the eighty-year-old man become a monk because he couldn’t see his karma, but the Buddha could. To be able to help sentient beings perfectly, without the slightest mistake, we need to achieve the state of omniscience. To be liberated from the grosser disturbing thought obscurations alone is not enough; we have to abandon the four unknowing minds.
I think that is enough. I will just go straight. Too much talk.
With Dependent Arising We Eliminate Ignorance
As I began explaining kar ma rab rib, looking at causative phenomena as like a star, as a mirage—sorry, not a mirage, as defective view. I started from that. As I mentioned yesterday, Lama Tsongkhapa praised the Buddha for having revealed dependent arising. Then, I said numberless sentient beings in the past have become liberated from samsara and become enlightened, numberless sentient beings are becoming enlightened now, and numberless will in the future. We have met the Buddha’s teachings and we are learning that now.
[In In Praise of Dependent Origination, Lama Tsongkhapa said:]
[2] Whatever degenerations there are in the world,
The root of all these is ignorance;
You taught that it is dependent origination,
The seeing of which will undo this ignorance.
I also told you that yesterday. The root of that is ignorance. The meaning of subtle dependent arising is the meaning of emptiness and the meaning of emptiness is the meaning of subtle dependent arising. Therefore, the Buddha taught subtle dependent arising. Seeing this, “will undo this ignorance,” which is the root of all the suffering.
Therefore, Lama Tsongkhapa said. “You [the Buddha] taught that it is dependent origination.” It doesn’t say “emptiness” but “dependent origination.” There is gross dependent origination and there is subtle dependent origination and meditating on subtle dependent origination more and more is a great help to realize emptiness.
This ignorance, this concept is where all suffering comes from, all the oceans of hell suffering, the oceans of hungry ghost suffering, the oceans of animal suffering, the oceans of human being suffering, the oceans of sura being suffering, and the oceans of asura being suffering. All the suffering of samsara comes from this ignorance, this wrong concept. It is like this. OK.
Our I has been created by our mind. How is it done? How is it created by our mind? There has to be a valid base, which are the aggregates. It has to be valid. We can’t label the “I” on our shoes or on our nostrils. We can’t label the “I” on any [random] thing. We must have a valid base—the aggregates.
If we were to label the “I” on our shoes, that is not a valid base. First, the mind focuses on the valid base, the aggregates, and then it labels “I.” It not only labels “I” but it merely labeled “I.” That’s it. There’s nothing else. How the I exists is nothing else. You have to know that. Write it down! You have to carve it in the brain. It’s very important.
If we don’t like suffering, we must know that. If we want to help other sentient beings, to free them from suffering and for them to achieve liberation, we must learn this. All suffering comes from the mind. We must learn this. The mind focuses on the valid base, the aggregates, and then makes up the label “I.” Not only that, it merely labels “I.” That’s it. How the I exists is nothing more than that. What is the I? Nothing more than that. Just that. Just that. It is the nature of that. You have to know that! Clear?
We should meditate. Maybe we meditate on that, OK? Just a little bit.
[Pause for meditation]
The Subtle Middle Way Between Eternalism and Nihilism
In reality, that is the I that exists. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] That is the I that exists. But what it is is so subtle, so unbelievably subtle. It is not that it doesn’t exist. It exists, but how it exists is so subtle.
When many famous meditators in Tibet meditated on the emptiness of the I, they fell into nihilism, thinking that there is no I at all. It is like walking out on the ice; we fall down. We can easily slip into nihilism, thinking that there is no I. Or we can think that the I exists from its own side, a truly existent or real I, falling into eternalism. Either nihilism or eternalism, it’s so difficult to stay in the middle way. We have to have so much merit to see the I in the middle way, without falling into nihilism and eternalism. Even in Tibet famous meditators either fell into nihilism or eternalism when they meditated on the I.
In the first second, the mind, focusing on the aggregates, merely labels “I.” With the first second, it is that, unbelievably subtle. It’s not that there is no I, there is an I, but it is like it. You can almost say that although it’s not that the I doesn’t exist, it’s like it doesn’t exist. You understand? Write it down. It is very important. Even if you don’t understand it now, you will later. Having the correct realization, the correct understanding, is so important.
It is so subtle like that. It’s like it doesn’t exist. That is the reality. Like that, our aggregates of body and mind, all the senses and forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects, the objects of the mind, consciousness, our whole world—our senses and all the objects of the senses—are like that, merely labeled by the mind.
Like how we meditated just now on how the I is merely imputed by the mind, in reality the whole thing is not what appears to us now, what we believe. The whole thing is like the I—so subtle. It is not that it doesn’t exist, but it is like that. You understand? That is the reality. That is what the meditation on emptiness is. That is what we should meditate on—the reality, not a hallucination.
I have a retreat house called Amitabha Buddha Pure Land in Washington. There is an Amitabha Buddha statue there made in Vietnam. What stone is it? [Ven. Roger: Marble.] Marble stone. It is bigger than life size. They did it their own way with the eyes kind of closed, but an ex-monk from Kopan, Gelek, fixed them how it is explained in the texts to do the Buddha’s eyes. Then, there is a throne with different animals, which signify the five root delusions. He made those animals and another artist came and finished them.
We do an Amitabha celebration every year. I’ve done it three times now. We invite people and give them a delicious Tibetan lunch. For many people, the statue is not the main thing; the food is the main thing. In the morning, we do our practice of offerings. Then there is food. During the food and after the food, people can offer dance, such as the Twenty-One Taras’ dance. There is a small center there, Pamtingpa Center, and they can offer whatever songs they want. Last time, some Sherpas came from Seattle and offered song and dance.
I have diabetes, so I’m supposed to go for a walk, but it doesn’t get done. One time I went for a walk with Roger, Sherab, and two monks who live there, Tharchin and Tenzin. While we went from the house down to the main road, we meditated on impermanence and death, thinking about how many seconds there are from now up to death, how life is finishing so quickly. With that awareness, we walked down the hill. And then, coming up the hill, I explained to the two monks about the refuting object, gag cha. One of the monks studied philosophy in Nalanda but got lung. I explained the gag cha, the false I, the false object, the false action; I introduced many things. Coming up the hill with the meditation on emptiness, we looked at the real I, action, object, everything, looking at that which is a hallucination as a hallucination. That is one meditation but there might be others.
Walking with this awareness we went up, it seemed to me that Amitabha Buddha Pure Land retreat place, the house, almost looked like it was not there. Somehow walking with that mindfulness meditation on emptiness in that way helps. But, of course, I’m too lazy; I didn’t continue that meditation. You are supposed to develop, to be able to get to the point where you completely see it in a non-objectifying way. It is not that there is no house, which would be nihilism. Not that! That would be a very simple thing, but it’s not that.
For example, the I, just the I, without pointing out the false I, the real I, without pointing to that, just the general I, the merely labeled I or general I—the hair is not I, the brain is not I, all that, all the pieces inside, heart and all that, are not I. The heart is not I, the stomach, all the pieces are not I. The legs are not I. There is no I…. At the end, there is no I—not that. That is nihilism, falling into nihilism.
In Lamrim Chenmo, Lama Tsongkhapa said that when we check where the vase is, “This is not the vase,” “This is not the vase,” if we fall into nihilism destroying the dependent arising, that is due to not differentiating the gag cha and the nang wa [the object to be refuted and the appearance]. If we fall into nihilism, thinking that things do not exist, I saw in a text that that negative karma is like having killed one hundred million people. It is very heavy negative karma if we fall into nihilism. Therefore, we have to be very careful when teaching emptiness. If people fall into nihilism, they create that very heavy negative karma, like having killed one hundred million people.
In the sadhanas, when we say OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHO HAM, we meditate on emptiness and generate ourselves as the deity. When we practice tantra, there is always a meditation on emptiness before we generate as the deity. So, with TONG PA NYI DU GYUR, everything becomes empty. It becomes empty. It becomes empty. When we think it becomes empty, if we also think that it doesn’t exist, if we think that TONG PA NYI DU GYUR means it doesn’t exist, that is nihilism. You have to know that is nihilism. If we meditate like that, that is nihilism. Each time we say TONG PA NYI DU GYUR, it is nihilism, not a meditation on emptiness.
There is no I. Of course, there is no truly existent I, but to think that there is no I at all is nihilism. It becomes nihilism, thinking it is not there. Our meditation on TONG PA NYI DU GYUR becomes nihilism. We have to be very careful not to do that in our meditation.
A truly existent vase, a real vase, of course, that is not there. It appeared to us and we believe it to be there but it is not there at all, not even in name! But the vase exists in mere name! The real I does not exist at all; it is a hallucination. It doesn’t exist at all, but there is an I which exists in mere name. A real I does not exist, even in mere name. So you understand? If we are focusing on the real I or real vase, that is correct. That is correct. That basis doesn’t exist there; that is correct. But to think that there is no vase, that is nihilism. We have to be really careful in our meditation on emptiness.
Sorry, the time is finished.
Only Prasangika Have a Perfect View of Emptiness
Now here, all of phenomena—the I, action, object, the world, our world—everything that appears real to us, everything we believe to be real, is not there. Just as we meditated on how the I is merely labeled by the mind, everything is like that. It is not that things don’t exist, but they don’t exist from their own side. Everything exists in mere name. It is unbelievably subtle how the I is. That is the reality with the I and with everything.
In the first second, the I appears to us, but in the next second, when it appears back to the hallucinated mind, it appears back as not merely labeled by the mind. In the first second, the I is merely labeled by the mind. OK? But in the next second…. There is a negative imprint collected on the continuation of the consciousness by ignorance, the particular ignorance that has held the I as real from beginningless rebirths, as a truly existent I, a real I. That ignorance has left a negative imprint all the time up to now, decorating or projecting the merely labeled I as real. On the merely labeled I, it decorates or projects something real, existing by nature, truly existing or existing from its own side. From that second second onward, for our ignorance, our hallucinated mind, it is true. This I appears as real and we apprehend it as true.
That is the root of all the suffering—of the oceans of hell suffering, the oceans of hungry ghost suffering, the oceans of animal suffering, the oceans of human suffering. Every problem—depression, cancer and so on—every problem comes from that. The oceans of human problems, the oceans of relationship problems, the oceans of sura and asura problems—every suffering in the world comes from that. The suffering of rebirth, old age, sickness, death, the suffering of change, pervasive compounding suffering—it all comes from that concept.
The ignorance that believes that this is real, that apprehends this as real, is a very subtle concept. Even the Svatantrika believe that it exists by nature from its own side but it is also labeled. The Svatantrika think that is the correct one. That is what they believe. But for the Prasangika, that is totally wrong. [The object that] is labeled but also exists from its own side, that is totally the gag cha, the object to be refuted. That is what we have to totally realize, how it is empty as it is empty.
Of the four schools, that last one, Madhyamaka, has two [subschools]. What the [first subschool], Svatantrika thinks—that it is labeled but it also exists from its own side like that, the Prasangika school thinks is totally nonexistent. That is the realization of the correct view of the Prasangika view of emptiness.
That wisdom is the only one that can eliminate the root of samsara, ignorance. That is the only one. None of the other views—not the Vaibhashika school, the Sautrantika school, the Mind Only school or the Madhyamaka Svatantrika school—have a realization of emptiness that is complete, perfect.
It is not only the I that appears real to us; it is the same with our body and mind, with the five senses—forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects—with our whole world; it all appears real to us, real from there. The light from there, the colors, the paintings, everything from there, everything appears from there, a real one. Take you and me. You see me, crazy Lama Zopa, appearing from his own side; I see you. When you go outside, the sky appears to you, trees appear to you, everything appears to you as real.
In this way, whatever we do is meditation. Even if we go to the toilet, it is meditation. While we are doing pipi and kaka, it is meditation. Whatever we do is meditation—being aware of how it is not there. Even if we are eating, the food is not there. The real food is not there. Whatever we are doing, that is the best meditation. Even going shopping should be meditation. Our life becomes meditation. Even if we walk around, we practice the mindfulness of this. When we are eating, going to the toilet, whatever, we continuously practice this mindfulness. Whatever we do, our life is meditation; they are one. That is the best. That is the happiest life.
So, kar ma, the star, is emptiness, as I explained to you. Everything exists in mere name. Samsara and nirvana, happiness and problems, everything exists in mere name; it is empty from its own side.
“Nothing Exists and Yet It Appears”
Then rab rib, defective view, is the next one. As I explained, the I appears real. It is projected by the negative imprint left by ignorance, which decorates it as real. On the merely labeled I, all this is decorated.
What was I saying? Now I’m forgetting. Our whole world, which is merely labeled, appears to us, is projected as real. This hallucination is decorated on everything.
There is a verse in Dhammapada, then I’ll stop.
All existents are like a dream and an illusion.
There is nothing that is truly existent.
Nothing exists yet it appears. Therefore,
Don’t cling so much to phenomena!
Just like when in a dream, we know the dream, we can understand how all phenomena [exist]. We can get some idea, “All existents are like a dream, like an illusion.” Den päi ngo wo chi yang me, so, “There is nothing that is truly existent.” Do they truly exist? No! There is not even one [atom of true existence]. That which is truly existing is a hallucination. It is projected by the negative imprint, all decorated by our mind, by ignorance. “Nothing exists yet it appears.” Especially as truly existent. “Don’t cling so much to phenomena.” Don’t grasp, don’t cling too much.
Write this down. This is the Buddha’s teaching, from the Dhammapada.
I’ll stop here.
Dedications
[Rinpoche and students offer mandala and recite short dedication prayers in Tibetan]
“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, which is merely labeled by the mind…” Now you understand, now you have some understanding. “May the I who is merely labeled by the mind achieve buddhahood, which is merely labeled by the mind, and lead all the sentient beings, who are merely labeled by the mind, to that buddhahood, which is merely labeled by the mind, by myself alone, who is also merely labeled by the mind.”
