[2 December 2019 – No teachings]

That Which is Dependent Arising Is Empty

[Rinpoche and students recite Prayers Before Teachings until kar ma rab rib…]

As I explained, now it is easier to get some idea. Kar ma [a star] is a meditation on emptiness. I used that example. The I is empty, the action is empty, the object is empty, samsara and nirvana are empty, hell and enlightenment are empty, everyday life happiness and problems are empty, the whole of phenomena is empty. As I mentioned to you, it exists in mere name. All the things that exist, exist in mere name.

This is most unbelievably subtle. It exists but it is like it doesn’t exist. I told you to write that down! It exists but it is like it doesn’t exist. It is unbelievably subtle. From that we can get the idea that things do not exist from their own side; they do not exist by nature, they do not exist truly. There is no real thing—no real I, no real action, no real object, no real pizza, no real ice cream, all those things that we are attached to, and all the things we are angry at—there is no real enemy who abuses us.

We make an enemy for a whole year, for years, thinking “This person is so bad.” But there is no such real thing. In reality, there is no sure real enemy. You have to understand. In reality, all these things are empty; they do not exist from their own side, by their nature. They do not truly exist. They are not real. “Real” means from its own side.

That is why they exist but they are empty. While they are empty, they exist—they exist in mere name. Now you can see the middle way, which in nature is the correct way, whereas other ways are wrong. This is how existence and emptiness are unified. You have to write it down! This is what you have to realize. That is the correct one.

My memory is so bad. I have to look at the text because I don’t remember it. I don’t remember the words.

Nagarjuna said,

[25:18] Whatever is dependently co-arisen
That is explained to be emptiness.
That, being a dependent designation,
Is itself the middle way.⁵ 

This is Nagarjuna’s Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way. Nagarjuna is the second buddha who elaborated the Buddha’s teachings on emptiness. He wrote six different texts just on that, included in the Fundamental Wisdom.

“Whatever is dependently co-arisen, that is explained to be emptiness.” I explained how subtle dependent arising means existing in mere name. All phenomena that exist—the I, action, object—exist in mere name. How it exists is unbelievably subtle. Now, that is explained as empty. That means it does not exist from its own side, which means it is empty. While it exists, it is empty. It comes to that point.

Then, the next one. Because of that, it is merely labeled. To make it clear, without worrying about the translation, it is merely labeled by the mind. “That… itself is the middle way.” That is emptiness.

This is what we have to realize in order to eliminate the very root of the entire suffering of the hell beings, the hungry ghosts, the animals, the human beings, the suras and asuras, how for all problems and delusions, the root is ignorance.

There are the three poisonous minds, the six root delusions, twenty secondary delusions, but the root is ignorance. The only one to be eliminated is ignorance. That which is empty exists merely imputed by the mind, in mere name.

All that is the middle way, the way that is devoid of nihilism and devoid of eternalism, the false view that see things as truly existent, as existing from their own side.

Now it comes. Nagarjuna says,

[24:19] Something that is not dependently arisen,
Such a thing does not exist.
Therefore a nonempty thing
Does not exist.

There is no phenomenon that exists but is not empty. There is no such thing. Slightly different wording but the meaning is the same.

While things exist—the I, action, object, any phenomenon, enlightenment and hell, samsara and nirvana—while it exists, it exists in mere name. Unless we know how something exists, we can get confused by the meaning of “existing.” Nagarjuna says that there is no such phenomenon that is not a dependent arising and therefore there is no such phenomenon that is not empty. “Empty” means empty of existing from its own side. There is no phenomenon that is not empty of that. You understand?

In Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland, it says,

[99] Because the phenomena of forms
Are only names, space too is only a name.
Without the elements how could forms exist?
Therefore even name-only does not exist.⁶

The phenomena of forms exist in mere name, which means that even space exists in mere name. Form without elements does not exist. The elements are fire, water, air and earth, “Therefore, even name-only does not exist.” That means it does not exist truly. Even the mere name itself does not exist from its own side.

This is the same as what is mentioned in the Heart Sutra, which lists many things. There is no I, there is no form, there is no sound. It means it doesn’t exist from its own side. So, even the mere name does not exist from its own side. These are Nagarjuna’s words.

So, in the first second, there is the valid base, the aggregates, and the mind that focuses on the valid base and that merely labels “I.” That is the first second. And then, in the second second, because of the negative imprint left on the continuation of the consciousness from beginningless rebirths, right after the mere imputation, that negative imprint projects [true existence], like putting the roll of film we have taken pictures with into the machine with electricity and seeing the film on the movie screen, whatever picture it is, whether it’s a war or people having a party and enjoying themselves. The negative imprints that have accumulated on the continuation of consciousness decorate or project true existence onto the object, making us see it as existing from its own side, existing by its nature, as the real one. What we say in our everyday language is “real.” It means existing from its own side. That is decorated or projected.

Then, in the third second, we believe it. It appears as real and we believe it to be real. We believe it a hundred percent. This is what we have believed from beginningless rebirths. A good example is the I.

Then, from that concept, the oceans of suffering of the six realms happen. We have already experienced that numberless times, not just once. And unless we practice Dharma, unless we realize the three principal aspects of the path of renunciation, bodhicitta and right view and in particular emptiness, we will have to [experience this] again.

We have received this perfect human rebirth just once! It is like a dream. Except for those who practice Dharma, most people don’t think of the perfect human rebirth. All their life, they are a slave to money. The whole human rebirth, for thirty, sixty or a hundred years, is used for money, as a slave to money. It is not used for things that are meaningful. It’s the other way around [from the way it should be]—we become a servant for that. Consequently, this life is totally wasted, totally misused.

This is without talking about nonvirtue, the cause of the unbelievable suffering in samsara and the lower realms for eons and eons. Without realizing emptiness, we can’t eliminate the root of samsara, ignorance, marigpa! If we don’t eliminate that, we have to suffer in the six realms again endlessly. We also have to go through all the suffering of human beings: birth, old age, sickness, death and so on. We will experience it again numberless times in future rebirths if we don’t practice Dharma in this life. This one-time perfect human rebirth we have received is totally wasted, totally misused.

As the Fifth Dalai Lama says,

[From now on, this one time that you have found the boat of a perfect human rebirth,
The basis of achieving the collections of goodness of benefits and happiness,
If, without going to the land where you can definitely get jewels,
You return back to samsara empty, your heart is rotten.]

The ocean is full of wish-granting jewels and, although we can get as much as we want, we return empty. That is the example. If we did that, people would think we were totally crazy. The Fifth Dalai Lama uses that as an example for making life meaningless. If we don’t realize emptiness in particular, if we don’t eliminate ignorance, the root of samsara, this is what will happen. We have to develop that; we have to see everything as like an illusion.

When we have a direct perception of emptiness, we can cease the seed of karma and delusions. Then, we can be liberated from the true cause of suffering and achieve nirvana.

Looking Back on the Mirage of True Existence

What was I going to say?

After we merely label [the I onto the base of the aggregates], it should appear back to us as it is, as merely labeled by the mind. Its reality should appear to us! But that doesn’t happen. Except for somebody in equipoise meditation, for everybody else, whatever appears—the I, action, object—everything appears as truly existent.

Of course, if we have a direct perception of emptiness, understanding that it exists in mere name, when it appears, it still appears as if it exists from its own side, but we don’t believe that. Although we don’t yet have a direct realization, we don’t believe it. It’s like we have crossed the desert where there is no water, and we look back and have the appearance of water. We know there is no water but when we look back and have a vision of water, we know this is a mirage. That is a good example. It is like a mirage, like a dream, like an illusion.

Even the arya beings who have a direct perception of emptiness, who have directly realized that nothing exists from its own side, in the post-meditation break time, when they are not in equipoise meditation, anything that appears—the I, action, object—appears to exist from its own side. It is a hallucination, but they know it is a hallucination. We don’t know it is a hallucination, so we believe it to be real. We are totally trapped. I don’t want to say this, but seeing we totally believe the hallucination to be real, somebody might call us totally crazy! But even the exalted beings who see emptiness directly, when they are not in equipoise meditation, anything that appears appears as if it exists from its own side.

But for them, the way they see things is like a mirage, like when we come from the desert and look back and see what appears to be water but we know there is no water; we know it is not true. The meditator has that vision like a mirage, like a dream, like an illusion.

A buddha does not have a hallucination at all. Why? Because they have totally purified, completely ceased the subtle negative imprints that decorate or project the hallucination of true existence. They have totally purified all the obscurations. There are no obscurations when we become a buddha, neither gross nor subtle ones, and all realizations are completed. “Buddha” in Tibetan is sanggye. Sang means totally purified; gye means nothing more to develop.

So, a buddha does not have the subtle negative imprint in the mind that projects the hallucination of true existence. That has been totally purified. Therefore a buddha does not have the hallucination. Sentient beings—even arya beings with a direct perception of emptiness during post-meditation break time—have the hallucination. Whatever appears, there is the hallucination of existing from its own side. But for them because there is a direct realization of emptiness, the hallucination they see is like the mirage for us, seeing there is water but knowing there is no water.

Another example is like a dream, where we have a certain appearance. As I said before, in the dream we become the American president or we get married and have a hundred children, or we have a hundred helicopters or boats or ships. In the dream we have all these things, but when we wake up we don’t have them. The texts often say “during the dream” but I would rather use “when we wake up” to make it even clearer. We know it was just a dream, it was not real, these things didn’t exist. Then, for the person who recognizes during a dream that it is a dream, there is appearance but they do not believe it; they know it is not true. This is how it is with arya beings until they achieve enlightenment, until they cease completely the subtle negative imprints left by delusion.

I think in the Madhyamaka texts an example used is the magician who uses certain mantras and materials to hallucinate the audience. For somebody who doesn’t know this is a magic trick, they believe what appears, such as a diamond palace. The magician can even illusion the people to get them to believe that there is a whole city. We can see that in the texts. The person who doesn’t know that this is a magician can believe the palace of diamonds or whatever is real, or I don’t know what, a beautiful man or woman, a gold elephant, whatever. Far out, far out things! He can illusion the audience, but they don’t know he is a magician and believe the illusions are real.

What is projected… What is the word? What is projected by the magician, what is created. There may be people in the audience who don’t know that it is black magic [created by the magician], who believe it is real. It is like that for us. For those of us who haven’t realized emptiness, like me, we are like the audience believing what is created by the magician to be real. We are totally hallucinated! Totally hallucinated! [Rinpoche laughs at his own raised voice] I just did it two times; I want to do a third repetition. That example is enough for us to understand the nature of our life—we are totally hallucinated! That is the third loud repetition. I didn’t mean to do that but it happened by accident. Accident, by our karma!

The person who has realized emptiness sees that what the magician has created is not real. There is the appearance but they don’t believe it. For the exalted ones who have a direct perception of emptiness, there is the appearance of true existence but they don’t believe it.

We are at Kopan. We think all this is real. Whatever discomfort you have is real. Hot is real. Cold is real. Everything is real—real Kopan Monastery, real gompa, real food. But the person who realizes emptiness, especially the exalted ones who have a direct perception, everything still appears to exist from its own side, but they don’t believe it at all because of the direct perception. We have to reach that level. Not only by studying, that is not enough. If we have a lot of merit from the past, it can happen that we realize emptiness, but otherwise just studying is not enough.

Four Ways to Achieve Realizations

In Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Pabongka Rinpoche says that when Lama Tsongkhapa asked Manjushri about the way to quickly achieve lamrim realizations, Manjushri answered there were four ways: purifying obscurations, collecting merits, receiving blessings through single-pointed prayer to the guru and training in the actual body of the meditation.

The first thing is to purify the obscurations, which usually means [doing a practice like] Vajrasattva, as well as the Thirty-Five Buddhas practice, which is one of the many ways to purify. Collecting merit means doing things such as offering mandala. That is the common explanation. We need to do a lot of that.

My idea is that even though there are so many methods for purifying and collecting merits, the most powerful way is fulfilling the guru’s wishes and advice, offering service and paying respects to the guru. All these things are the most powerful.

Conversely, making a mistake by not correctly following the virtuous friend, the karma of that negative mind toward the guru becomes the heaviest negative karma. We have to also understand that. In a positive way, with a positive body, speech and mind, by fulfilling the guru’s wishes and advice, offering service and respect, we collect the highest merit. From that, we can also understand the negative side, how we create negative karma if we make mistakes in correctly following the virtuous friend.

“Receiving blessings through single-pointed prayer to the guru.” That’s why if we just meditate, going straight through the analytical or fixed meditation but never purifying or collecting merit, never making requests to the guru, if guru devotion is left out, realizations don’t happen.

Then, the fourth one is “training in the actual body of the meditation.” Correctly following the virtuous friend, realizing the guru is the embodiment of all the numberless past buddhas, all the present buddhas and all the future buddhas, that every single action of the guru’s body, speech and mind is every buddha’s actions of the holy body, speech and mind—if we have realized that with a stable mind, with a realization, we can have lamrim realizations of each of the paths: the graduated path of lower capable being, of the middle capable being and of the higher capable being, including right view, as well as the two stages of tantra.

When these things happen—purification, collecting merits, single-pointed requesting the guru and receiving the guru’s blessings—even if not much meditation is done, even a few words in the teachings wake up our mind. It clicks. Otherwise, it just remains words. Like in the past we might have debated that things don’t exist from their own side, but while debating we have been thinking something else. Recognizing our own mistakes, right now the way we think and believe is like somebody else. For years it is like that. But when these things happen—purification and collecting merits, requesting the guru single-pointedly, then just hearing two or three words on emptiness clicks in our mind. We wake up.

The I on the I

For example, when all conditions happen, that there is vase on the vase, that there is an I on the I, that clicks. Suddenly, we look outside at the ceiling which has seemed to exist from its own side, the thangkas and the brocade, the red, blue, green, which has seemed to exist from their own side, the I that we have believed in from beginningless rebirths—not only from this morning, not only from birth, but from beginningless rebirths—only now we recognize [the reality]. 

Then, we look at the I; the I is just there. There is an I on the I. Now, we recognize the real I, the gag cha, the Prasangika’s object to be refuted, the real I. Now we recognize the real I. Somebody praises us, “You are so nice,” “You are so kind,” making us so happy. At that time the I becomes so big. Our emotional I becomes so big. Then somebody says, “You are so bad, so selfish,” then our emotional I thinks, “Oh, he hurt me.” It becomes very big again, but we don’t recognize that is the gag cha, that this is what we need to realize doesn’t exist.

Some examples. With the real I, realizing emptiness, “the I on the I” means the first I is the merely imputed I and the second one is the real one. The meaning is like that. With the vase on the vase, the first vase is the merely imputed vase and the second vase is the real one, the one existing from its own side. Just two words and it clicks. Then, suddenly the I cannot stay. The real I cannot stay. No way! Once we have recognized it as false, it cannot stay. 

Shigpa is dissolved, but it is still there. I don’t know the word. When you dissolve medicine in the water, it is still there. It’s dissolved but it is still there, shigpa. I don’t know the word in English. Totally nonexistent, it cannot stay as it is. We have been holding the real I like this from beginningless rebirths. Not only from this morning, from birth, but from beginningless rebirths, but suddenly now there is nothing there. There is nothing to hold on to when we realize emptiness. I don’t have the good luck to realize emptiness, the fortune, but they say it is like this. Suddenly, it’s not there.

As I mentioned yesterday, “I want happiness,” “I want this, I want that.” We want so much, and if we don’t get it, we get angry. We get angry with others and that causes so many problems in life. But the I [that wants all these things] is not there. Not knowing the reality—that the real I is not there—is the biggest hallucination. We totally torture ourselves, giving ourselves so much suffering constantly. All the time we suffer unbelievably living our life in the hallucination, believing the I to be real. It’s unbelievable.

What was I going to say?

Bodhisattvas who have so much merit, when they realize emptiness, when they discover that the I that they have believed to be real is not there, they are so happy. Tears come out; their hairs stand up. I remember a monk at Land of Calm Abiding in America understood emptiness; it happened to him like that. But for bodhisattvas of lower intelligence, fear comes out. When that experience happens, I think there is more fear than meeting a tiger on the road. Great fear arises when we realize emptiness, even if we just see there is no I. That there is no I means a not-merely-labeled I. It means the real I, what the Heart Sutra says, no this, no that. It means a real I, existing from its own side. It means that one.

I think I mentioned to you that practitioners of lower intelligence have unbelievable fear. They have believed in the I that is real not only from this morning or from birth but from beginningless rebirths, but now they start to see it is not there. There is nothing to hold on to, there is nothing there to cherish. We hold on to that I and on top of that we cherish it. When we realize there is nothing there to cherish, to apprehend, to hold on to, at that time we might think we are falling into nihilism. If we don’t have the complete experience of emptiness, if the teacher didn’t teach us the complete experience—maybe they taught us the words from the text but didn’t teach the complete experience—when we meditate and realize there is no I, we have incredible fear, fearing we are falling into nihilism. But we are not falling into nihilism. What we are experiencing is correct, but we don’t know it’s correct, so, we think we are falling into nihilism.

I have to tell you one thing. I think if we were falling into nihilism, we wouldn’t be afraid. For example, if we did the meditation of looking for the I and looked from the head down to the toes, checking that this is not I, this is not the I and so on. Or the same for the mug. [Rinpoche points to the various parts of the mug on his table] “This is not mug,” “This is not mug.” We don’t find mug. And the same for the I. We won’t be afraid. We won’t experience that incredible fear. Why? My idea is this. Because our meditation on emptiness didn’t touch the gag cha, the truly existent I. We didn’t touch it. We can look for the general I or the merely labeled I, but we didn’t look for the real I, the one we believe in. We didn’t do that. That hallucination is left out, untouched. It is left there because we didn’t touch it. Even if we didn’t find the I, we wouldn’t have that strong fear. But if our meditation touches the gag cha, the real I, and we didn’t find it, with that correct meditation on emptiness, then the fear comes.

I think that if the fear comes, that is the correct way of realizing emptiness. Therefore, what I’m going to say is that just as we have to cross the river, we have to cross this fear; we have to go through the fear. Like having to cross the river to get to the other side, we have to go through the fear. That fear is the correct one!

So, don’t be afraid of falling into nihilism. If we think we are falling into nihilism and then stop, for so many years we won’t get back to the same point. We won’t get the experience.

The Importance of Preliminary Practices

Anyway, Manjushri advised Lama Tsongkhapa that this practice of purification, collecting merits and single-pointedly requesting the guru to receive the blessings are so important! [In order to actualize] the fourth one, studying and meditating, such as meditating on emptiness, these three other things become so important. That is why preliminary practice and prayers, all these practices are so important. It is not blah, blah, blah, to make the time pass.

I mentioned about the retired person who has nothing to do so they walk around their garden for hours not knowing how to live their life, not practicing, not meditating, not reciting mantras. Tibetans recite OM MANI PADME HUM and do many other things. In Switzerland, I don’t know what happened but once there was no work for so many of the Tibetan people there and they were so happy because they had time to do prayers. The Western people there who hadn’t met the Dharma were so unhappy. I heard that story.

What I’ve explained about this practice of purification and collecting merits is very important for you to remember. There are many practices. Single-pointedly requesting the guru is so important. When we do these things, the experience comes. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] The experience comes. Normally, it doesn’t happen. We study about compassion or impermanence, and before it was just words, we didn’t feel it. But when our mind is with the preliminary practices, when our mind is purified or we collect merits, then the experience comes. Then, we are really surprised! We think we will never get a realization in our life, that maybe it is not true, but when we really practice continuously, the experience comes. Then, we surprise ourselves.

The Kadampa geshe Thorbu, who is in Nepal, said we don’t believe realizations like bodhicitta or renunciation will happen for many years because they look difficult, but when we practice, it can happen even within seven years.

Everything Is Created by the Mind

Some Western people who teach Dharma are attractive and intelligent, although I don’t know, maybe they’re not fortunate-intelligent but unfortunate-intelligent. I had one uncle who passed away. He was a monk but he disrobed. He said Kopan monks won’t last, that after some time they would be carrying rucksacks on treks, meaning they will go looking for money. He said they were unfortunate-clever. Being clever but unfortunate, they could not stay monks. He said that they had learnt so much Dharma and were on the path to enlightenment, but they had no karma to continue. Therefore, he said these Kopan monks were unfortunate-clever.

Some people attract new people when they talk about the Dharma but they themselves don’t know about guru devotion practice. They have no idea; they think that maybe Tibetan lamas made it up for their own benefit, something like that. They don’t feel comfortable talking about it to others. I think this is because they haven’t studied well.

What I’m saying is that this is inner science. Like this clock, which depends on so many things to enable it to give the time, this is how all these lamrim meditations work; it’s similar. If we do them correctly it happens. It clicks in our mind when the conditions come together.

When we plant a seed in the ground, with the right water and soil, everything comes together and it grows. Other seeds take time but this one that has all the right conditions grows first. This is similar. Do you understand what I’m saying?

A buddha is like somebody who can’t be fooled by the illusions that the magician produces. The magician can hallucinate other people but a realized being cannot be hallucinated. Knowing that this is [an illusion produced] by a magician, it cannot affect their mind, their senses. That is the example of a buddha. They are there in the audience, seeing the illusion but knowing it is not real because it has been created by the magician. They see the appearance but they don’t believe it, whereas people who don’t know this is a black magic [trick] believe it to be real.

I use that as the example of us, who totally believe the hallucination, who totally live our life in that hallucination. We totally believe in this real I; we do everything for this real I which is not there at all. We do everything for this real I: cheating sentient beings, killing them, having wars, bringing court cases. We can harm hundreds of thousands, millions, all to get power for this I. It’s unbelievable. Our whole life, we work so hard, getting an education and working so hard for this I. But it is not there!

I often give the example that for us, the I, the action, the object, hell and enlightenment, samsara and nirvana—everything appears real from there and we totally believe it. I didn’t finish the quotation from Lama Tsongkhapa. First of all, there is the hallucination exaggerated by ignorance into seeing things as truly existent: the I, the action, the object, everything. Then, the next one, we further exaggerate by seeing it as bad or good, and then attachment or anger arise, which is another hallucination. We live our life like that.

I didn’t say the last part of the verse [from Lamrim Chenmo]. I’m not going to repeat it now. These incorrect ways of apprehending objects can be eliminated with logical reasoning. We can prove they are wrong and, by meditating on this, we can eliminate them. That is what Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned.

That is one way, seeing how everything is created by the mind. Our world is created by our mind, our I, the action, the object. Everything is created by the mind. For example, the I is created by our mind. Focusing on the valid base, the aggregates, the mind merely imputed the I. Do you see? Like that, the I is created by the mind. You must know that. Like that, all phenomena are created by the mind. Our whole world is created by the mind.

When we learn language, when we learn any subject, science or Dharma, when we learn the name of the path, the name of the suffering, when we learn all the names, we believe what we are taught. Our mind labels the same thing as what we were taught. So, the whole thing is created by our mind.

I’ll just give you an example. I want to say something, just short—the old students have heard it before. When we are a child learning the alphabet, our teacher or our parents who are teaching us the alphabet write an “M” on the blackboard like this. [Rinpoche makes four lines in the air] They haven’t yet explained what it is, we haven’t been taught yet, so we just see the four lines. We don’t know it is an “M” so there is no appearance of M. That’s because we haven’t labeled “This is an M.”

After the teacher teaches us that this is “M,” following the teacher, we believed it and we label it “M.” After we label it “M,” the M appears to us; we see the M.

The first time, we label the “M”; the second time, the M appears; and the third time, we see the M. The process is like that. Seeing the M depends on our mind labeling the M. So, the M we can see comes from our mind. And that comes after somebody has taught us that those four lines are an M. That is how we know everything. Like the M, the I and all phenomena come from our mind. That is the example. Everything comes from our mind; our mind creates it.

Then, of course, what we see is a real M. A real M appears to us and we believe in this real M. Where is the real M? This [one line] is not the real M; this one line is not the real M; this one is not the real M; even all together they are not the real M. Depending on these four lines, our mind immediately labels them an “M,” but all these are not a real M. All these are the base to be labeled “M” which is tag cho in Tibetan. The lines themselves are tag zhi, the base to be labeled “M,” and [what is labeled] is tag cho. They are different but they are not separate. Just as I and aggregates exist differently but not separately, this is the same. The base for the M exists and what is labeled “M” exists. These two do not exist separately but differently. You have to know all that.

Therefore, if we look for the real M, we can’t find it. This line is not the real M. Even all the lines together are not the M; they are the base. If the base were the M, then the aggregates would be I. Mind would become I, body would become I. All the atoms of the body would become I—so many Is. I don’t know how many atoms you have. Like my talk, so many.

We have to debate; we have to see the mistake. When we buy a plane ticket, we only pay for one person but if there were so many Is, so many persons, we would have to pay tickets for everybody, for however many Is we have.

Like that, many mistakes can arise. I’m just giving an example. You should check more. So, this is just tag zhi, the basis to be labeled. And the label, tag cho, the “M,” those two exist differently but not separately.

This proves the real M is not there, that it is a hallucination, the same as the real I.

Now I’m giving you an example, but we have to be able to expand that to everything. It is so important to understand. How we discriminate bad or good, what we call bad or good in our life, comes from habituation from past lives. This color or shape is bad, this one is good; this person is handsome or beautiful, this one is ugly. That is due to our past life habituation or to our culture, our society, what society believes to be good or not good. Sometimes, it relates to our society or culture; sometimes it even comes from a past life, related to our past life’s habit, our past life’s recognition. It’s like that. Bad and good—we see this is bad, this is good.

If a hundred people look at one person, some see that person as exciting, handsome, beautiful, some see them as ugly, or as just OK, neither beautiful nor ugly. Of the hundred people looking at that one person, they see them in many different ways. After they label them in many different ways, they see them in many different ways.

Now I’m going to stop. Things come from the mind like this. I’ll tell you one thing. Please keep this. We have never found this person’s body interesting but then, when they have been very kind to us, helping us, we see them as beautiful. We never thought their body was beautiful before, but after they have been very kind to us, we feel close to them and our view of that person changes. We think they are very beautiful.

This not only changes for other people; sometimes we see ourselves differently. Sometimes, we see ourselves as beautiful, but then, if we get angry with somebody and they get angry with us, we don’t see beauty. We see the person as very fearful, not beautiful at all, even if we saw them as beautiful before. So, everything comes from our mind. When somebody criticizes us, makes us work very hard, abuses us in many ways or when they are angry with us, upset with us, even if we didn’t do anything bad in particular to harm that person, it comes from our mind.

They do not exist from their own side; this comes from our mind. Our mind created it. This is what Shantideva, the great bodhisattva from Nalanda, said and what the Buddha said. This is the reality. [In A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life Shantideva said,

[6:42] Previously I must have caused similar harm
To other sentient beings.
Therefore it is right for this harm to be returned
To me who is the cause of injury to others.

[6:47] Having been instigated by my own actions,
Those who cause me harm come into being.
If by these (actions) they should fall into [the hole of] hell
Surely isn’t it I who am destroying them?]⁷

You must write that one down! And then you’ll understand. Otherwise, you hear it once and then it’s kind of gone far to another universe. Write it down, then you can see it again. If you have problems, it is so helpful. It brings so much peace in your mind, in your life.

“Previously, I must have caused similar harm to other sentient beings.” Our karma persuaded them, therefore, we receive this harm. Whatever it is, people criticizing us behind our back, people being angry with us, our karma persuaded them and therefore they are harming us. And by harming us, they are creating negative karma. What happens is that that makes them be born in hell. “If by these (actions) they should fall into [the hole of] hell surely isn’t it I who am destroying them?”

It means that although they are now in the human realm, because they harmed us and created negative karma, with that angry, negative mind, they will be born in hell, lost from the human realm and gone to the hole of hell. That is because in the past we abused that person. Not necessarily in this life, but in past lives. It can be in the life before this, it can be a few lifetimes ago, it can be many millions or billions of eons ago. It was our negative karma that persuaded them to harm us. Therefore, we are responsible for sending them to be lost in the hole of hell. Here, Shantideva clearly shows us the evolution—how we caused it. That person giving harm to us is the result of us harming them in the past. That is why it happened.

Whatever we are experiencing now in all the twenty-four hours—pleasure or discomfort—there is always a reason. It all has a karmic reason; it’s all due to the past karma we have created. Everything we experience today comes from our past actions. Whatever we experience within each twenty-four hours, everything has a reason. Discomfort, pleasure, whatever happens, everything has a reason. Everything has a cause for happening—that is our karma from a past life or from this life, even from the year before or from yesterday or this morning.

[Knowing this] helps us to not become angry, to not create the negative karma of harming back. If we harm somebody back, that means we create that negative karma again. Because we are retaliating, we will be harmed in return for five hundred lifetimes. If we cheat one sentient being, we will be cheated for five hundred lifetimes; if we kill an insect, we will be killed for five hundred lifetimes. That is experiencing the result similar to the cause.

That is why, although the young Tibetan people want to fight China, like in normal countries, His Holiness the Dalai Lama advised them not to fight. He said they should practice compassion for the Chinese, that peace will be achieved by compassion, not by fighting. That is the Buddha’s advice. If we fight, we will suffer for hundreds, thousands, millions [of lifetimes] and receive harm from others, without end. Harming others always causes so much suffering, and without end we receive harm from others.

Therefore, His Holiness says we should practice compassion, peace, and then we’ll get success. That is just one example. If we harm others, we continuously create suffering. We receive suffering from others continuously.

Not only that, when we practice compassion, we are not only not harming others, we are helping them. Whatever we can do, we are helping. Even reciting the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM helps us to not be born in hell, to achieve enlightenment. We dedicate our merits to help others.

I want to bring this up about emptiness, how everything is created by our mind. It is so important to realize.

I think I’ll stop there. That is so important. That is what the Buddha advised; that is what the reality is. That is what makes our life most beneficial, most happy, not only for us but for all sentient beings. It is the quick way to not only be free from samsara but also to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings.

OK. Thank you so much.

Dedications

[Rinpoche and students offer mandala]

“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 do not exist from their own side, may the I, who does not exist from its own side, achieve buddhahood, which does not exist from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who do not exist from their own side, to that buddhahood, which does not exist from its own side, by myself alone, who does not exist from its own side.”

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Notes

⁵ See The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Oxford University Press), p.69. [Return to text]

6 See Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland (Snow Lion), p. 108. [Return to text]

7 See A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (LTWA). Rinpoche quoted these verses in Tibetan but did not translate them. [Return to text]