Lecture 7
MEDITATION ON THE REALITY OF LIFE
We enjoy life by creating perfect wholesome actions that are beneficial toward other sentient beings and beneficial toward ourselves. That is the best benefit, even toward ourselves.
[Do not harm others;
If you can, help others.]
Subdue your own mind.
This is the teaching of the Buddha.
Again we reflect on the reality of things. From the various hallucinations, we bring our attention onto the reality of things. From those distractions, from those wrong concepts, we bring our concentration onto touching reality, looking at the reality. The meditation means looking at, recognizing what are the wrong concepts, wrong understanding and what is right understanding; what is hallucination and what is reality. By practicing awareness, we recognize what is hallucination. Practicing awareness is looking at the hallucination as a hallucination. That is one meditation, being aware of what a mistaken view is and then recognizing it. Recognizing it that way. That is one meditation.
The other meditation is looking at reality. By seeing what is right understanding, what are these Dharma understandings, these right understandings, these wisdoms, then we can guide ourselves. Only then there’s a chance to guide ourselves. Then we can protect our own life by ourselves. If we don’t recognize these various wrong concepts, these various hallucinations, there’s no way we can realize the realities. We can’t recognize what is right without recognizing what is wrong. We can’t recognize what is the truth. Truth, right is the same thing. If we can’t realize what is wrong, the wrong part of life, we can’t realize what is right.
These analyses of life, of our own concepts, our own views, these are very essential meditations. Studying our own mind, studying our own views, seeing what is right and wrong. There are big piles of hallucinations. They are like piles of garbage. There are different types of hallucinations. There are big piles of gross hallucinations and subtle hallucinations. If we analyze our views, our concepts, we will come to know the reality of different phenomena, the reality of things.
We can see that through the Omniscient One’s explanations of life, of our life or our mind. We can understand our sufferings and the evolution of suffering, the causes, through the explanation of the four noble truths. Through that, we can see all these wrong concepts, the wrong views and their opposites, the realities, what is right understanding, what is right view, what are all the different levels of right view.
This is the only way to escape from suffering, to completely end the whole, entire problems of life, the problems of the six realms. Just as we have gone through these six realms in meditation, to never experience at all the problems of the six realms, not only the problems of the human realm. To completely end all these problems, to never experience them at all, the only way is by recognizing all our own various wrong thoughts, wrong views, which are the cause of the problem, and by understanding what is right understanding and right view. Only through realizing those right views, which means actualizing right understanding, can we eliminate the wrong conceptions.
Therefore, in order to have this chance to completely eliminate the cause of the whole, entire problems, it’s extremely important to do the listening, reflecting and meditation practice of the teachings that show the unmistaken path, that explain all the right views, that explain all the wrong views, the wrong concepts, and all the right realizations. The teachings that reveal the right path, the complete path without missing anything, in order to achieve the highest goal, full enlightenment, the cessation of all the mistakes of the mind and the completion of all realizations.
For that reason, the Omniscient One, the kind, compassionate Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, has explained everything. His teachings contain the complete unmistaken path, complete from beginning to end, from beginning to end, to the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. To meditate with the understanding of the Omniscient One’s teachings is fundamental.
Again we focus our mind, bringing our attention to the reality of life, that the I, our body, our possessions, our friends, the surroundings, enemies, strangers and so forth, all these things are changing within every second by cause and conditions. They are decaying within every second.
Because of subtle impermanence, these things can be stopped at any time. There’s no way to trust that these things will exist like they do today. These things can’t be trusted to exist every day. As these things that exist as they are existing now, there’s nothing to trust that they will exist all the time, every day. These things can be stopped at any time.
By this reason of the nature of the phenomena, of the impermanence and death, there is no reason, no valuable reason, no worthwhile reason at all for anger, ignorance, attachment, all these disturbing thoughts to arise.
THE REAL I CAN’T BE FOUND
And the second thing is that while the I, action, object and so forth—all these things, all the rest of existence—while they exist, all these things are completely empty from their own side.
As I mentioned yesterday, what appears as real—the I, action, object, all of existence—what appears as a real one, which means in the sense of existing from its own side, inherently existent, if we look for it, if we analyze, it can’t be found. If we search for it, if we analyze whether it really exists or not, it can’t be found anywhere. This real I cannot be found. Generally, the I can be found, the I, the self that is imputed by the mind, that can be found, but the real I, which appears as not labeled by the mind, if we search for it, it can’t be found anywhere. It can’t be found. Not only that it can’t be found on this base, the aggregates, the association of the body and the mind, not only that—in the sense, unlabeled by the mind, uncreated by the mind—not only that it can’t be found on the base, the association of body and the mind, not only that it can’t be found from the tip of the hairs down to the toes, anywhere. Neither inside nor outside. It can be found nowhere. Besides that, it can’t be found, not only that it can’t be found here, on this base, not only that it can’t be found on this base, it can’t be found anywhere. It can’t be found in the world. It can’t be found at Kopan. It can’t be found in Nepal. It can’t be found anywhere, in the East or West. Nowhere it exists. That I, nowhere it exists. If we searched for it, it can’t be found anywhere.
We can get an idea from listening to the wisdom teachings, listening to the unmistaken teachings of the right view, the ultimate nature of the I and so forth. The best one is through meditation, through our own experience or analysis. Through our own meditation, through our own analysis, which is the meditation on the ultimate nature, the emptiness of the I, gets proved to us. The ultimate nature of the I, that which is empty, gets proved to us through our own analysis, our meditation.
By analyzing, by meditating, in this way, what is realized, what is discovered is that it is not found. It is unfindable. It is empty. This real I, which is in the sense of being unlabeled, has nothing to do with the mind, it is unlabeled by the mind, uncreated by the mind. Through analysis, through meditation, by checking, what is discovered is that that I is completely empty. That real I, that real mind, that real body, any phenomena that appears to exist from its own side, is discovered through analysis, through meditation, to be empty. This is what is realized.
There is nobody who has ever realized, who has discovered through meditation, through analysis, that the unlabeled mind exists, the unlabeled I exists. There hasn’t ever been one person who has realized through analysis that the inherently existent, real I exists, or that any other phenomenon inherently exists. Nobody has realized this. And all the numberless buddhas, the numberless omniscient ones—those whose minds are completely free from all defilements, all mistakes, all wrong concepts, all the obscurations—how they see things, including ourselves and everything, is that it’s completely empty from its own side. Even though they exist in mere name they don’t have the slightest inherent existence from their own side. They don’t have even an atom of inherent existence. Nothing, not in the slightest. All this existence, nothing in the slightest exists from its own side.
This is something that can be proved by our own mind through our own analysis, through our own meditation.
So, to repeat again. Everything, including the I, action, everything is completely empty from its own side. That is the reality. That is the ultimate nature of things—the I and so forth. However, what appears to our mind is something contradictory. The I does not appear to us as empty from its own side, as merely imputed by the mind. Even though that is the reality, it does not appear to us in that way. So the I does not appear to us according to the reality of how it exists. The way it appears to us, to our own mind, is contradictory, it’s completely the opposite to the reality. That is the definition of false; that is the meaning of false. While it doesn’t exist in that way, it appears as if it exists in that way, that one is false. The other false view is that while it exists, it appears as if it doesn’t exist at all. So, there are differences in regards the false view, what is false.
The I exists being merely imputed by the mind and because of that it is empty of existing inherently. That I doesn’t exist from its own side. But it doesn’t appear that way; it appears to our mind as if it exists from its own side. As if it exists from its own side, as if it is not merely labeled by the mind. That is a false view. The I doesn’t exist as it appears, as inherently existent, as existing from its own side. This is the appearance that we have now, of a real self, an inherently existent self. That real self is doing things: that real self is talking, that real self is listening to teachings, that real self is now meditating. A real I is at Kopan now. This real I is doing a meditation course.
That I, and all the things that appear to us as real, as existing from their own side, all these activities being done, these are all hallucinations. All that is a complete hallucination. It’s completely empty. All that is completely empty right there. From where it appears, it is completely empty right there.
Like the example of the I, in reality it’s empty but it appears as if it is independent, existing from its own side. Like this, action, object, all existence, are all empty; in reality, they are empty from their own side. In reality, they exist being merely labeled by the mind. The way all these things exist and how they appear to our own mind is completely contradictory, the opposite. They appear as independent, existing from their own side, not merely labeled by the mind.
LIKE A DREAM
That’s why the Buddha said in the quotation we have just recited that we should look at all existence as like a dream, like an illusion that a magician performed. Like how a magician transforms an object, causing an illusion. The Buddha said we should look at all existence like a dream, like an illusion. That is related to our view, to our hallucination, that which blocks us from seeing reality. By having this hallucinated view and by believing in it, this blocks us from seeing the reality of the I, of the action, of the object, of all existence. The instruction from the Buddha is that we should look at all existence as being empty, like an illusion, like a dream.
In a dream, there’s the I, action, object; there’s the appearance of the I doing various activities—having a party, traveling, getting married and getting divorced, being happy meeting a friend, fighting, becoming enemies—but all this is in the dream. There are these appearances but they are not true. They don’t exist.
In a dream, we can dream that we get married, that we have a wedding, a big party, going to church, praying, anyway, all those things, and after all that we feel we are married to the person we like, but when we wake up the next morning, we’re not married to that person. We don’t have that person. There are differences.
If the dream in which we find a million dollars—either we win a lottery or somebody gives it to us or we find it on the road—if that million dollars were true then there should be a million dollars when we wake up. Then we can stop worrying or immediately we can quit our job. Then we can start to worry about how to spend the money. Where to go for holidays. What is the best holiday we can do on this earth? What is the best holiday?
Then there are more interesting things. After having tried all that, there are more interesting things, there are more interesting experiences. After having tried what’s explained, even if we could make some plans, some more interesting experiences because of the nature of samsara, we just have a more dissatisfied mind. The more interesting the experience, the more dissatisfied the mind.
The I, action, object, everything, all these things appear as real, as existing from their own side. It’s the same. There’s the appearance like this but it’s not true. There is the appearance like this, but it doesn’t mean that it’s true. It’s just exactly, exactly like a dream, like the things we see in a dream.
We need to completely eliminate the cause of suffering, ignorance, the concept of true existence. This is like the king of the hallucinated minds. Among many other wrong concepts, among many other hallucinated minds, this hallucination, this concept of the truly existent I, is the king of the hallucinated minds. To completely eliminate this cause of suffering and the whole entire suffering, to achieve liberation, then to achieve the great liberation, full enlightenment, the Omniscient One advised us to listen, reflect and meditate on the teachings that explain the ultimate nature, emptiness. The ultimate nature. We need to practice awareness, to live our life with this awareness of the reality of things, to realize the ultimate nature of things and to develop this wisdom.
So we reflect on this just a little bit.
[Meditate]
Everything, including the I, action, object, everything exists by depending on the base and the thought that labels. While the I, action, object, everything exists by depending on the base and the thought that labels, all these existences are empty, empty from their own side.
[Meditate]
While the I, action, object, everything, exists, while all these things are existing by depending on the base, they are empty. So concentrate on this.
[Meditate]
While the I, action, object, while all these exist by depending on the mind, while all these things are existing being merely labeled by the mind, they are empty. So again, concentrate on this.
[Meditate]
While the I, action, object, all these existences exist being merely labeled by the mind, by depending on the mind labeling them, at the same time all these existences are empty from their own side.
[Meditate]
So, concentrate on this. That itself is the meditation of the Heart Sutra.
JORCHÖ LAMA CHÖPA
[Rinpoche recites Lion-face Dakini prayer.]
I explained yesterday about the meaning of the prayer. The first two lines are taking refuge or relying upon the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and the next two lines are generating bodhicitta.
Yesterday I just gave some general idea, some rough idea of the whole path: the procedure, the Lesser Vehicle path, and the Paramitayana path, then the particular, the Secret Mantra, Highest Yoga Tantra, in order to achieve the ultimate, full enlightenment. This was just brief, like walking in the forest in the dark. Without the realization of the path, it’s like walking in the forest in the dark.
The idea was to explain it during this course, but maybe it becomes the next course. Anyway, I’m just joking. Maybe it becomes the idea for next year’s course.
Anyway, the idea is that in the mornings we practice the preparatory practice, the Jorchö. Many of the old students are more familiar with doing the Guru Puja, Lama Chöpa, then Jorchö, except the earlier Sangha who did it as a group every morning when they were here. Even after they were kicked out, by the kindness of the police office, and had to go to Dharamsala, when they were together, they did Jorchö in the morning for a long time. They did the practice for a long time, which is very important, especially for monasteries that offer retreats, those that are ascetic monasteries, that put all their effort, day and night, all the time into the lamrim. Particularly, many of those monasteries begin the day with this practice. They do extensive and strong practice of purification and accumulating merit, the intensive guru yoga practice, this request in order to receive the blessings of the guru. On the basis of that they meditate on the lamrim, on the graduated path to enlightenment.
Since there are still many people who are familiar with the Lama Chöpa, the Guru Puja, the idea is to put the Jorchö and the Lama Chöpa together. By putting them together, then do the practice. Also to do the traditional chanting, the way it’s done traditionally, to do it elaborately in that way, with all the necessary things, with those different practices which are in Jorchö for purifying the mind, offering bath to the merit field and so forth. But there’s no going to the beach. Anyway, I’m joking. Offering bath to the merit field, but there’s no going to the beach with the merit field.
The idea is to become familiar with how the lineage lamas practiced the causes for developing the mind, how they did all these various preliminary practices in everyday life, the practices in which they lived their life and developed their mind, and then achieved enlightenment. To become familiar with this and also to know the chanting as well.
Many of the people who have already heard Dharma before can learn these various practices, to become familiar with them, and also for those who have commitments, the commitments get done by the way. For those who have commitments like the Six-Session Guru Yoga, then this becomes one extensive Six-Session Guru Yoga practice.
There was one particular very secret meditation for wind disease. It happened to be the time to take this initiation, because of advice from Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, from whom I took many teachings, initiations, after Lama passed away. There’s one, very special, very secret meditation practice to do. So there was one student who did this, the director of the Central Office. He did some retreat at Tushita. He had wind disease, and so he was somehow looking for this practice. It was found out that Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche had this lineage, so he received the oral transmission. I don’t think he received the explanation, just received the lung, the oral transmission, but I don’t think he received the commentary. I’m not sure whether he got the actual practice done. But even just by receiving the oral transmission his lung,3 his wind disease, got better. This was the main cause, this was the main reason I went to request to receive the lineage of this practice. That’s how it started.
Then more and more I asked questions about general sutra or tantra, and spent more and more time with Rinpoche, and gradually found out more and more how Rinpoche gained experience or knowledge like the oceans, with such a clear understanding of the Dharma. Then I took many initiations and teachings. There are some initiations in danger because of the rarity of the lineage. They are very rare, very rare in the Gelug sect. There are four Tibetan Mahayana sects, Gelug, Sakya, Kagyü and Nyingma. In the Gelug some of these initiations have become very rare because those who are still alive, especially outside of Tibet, don’t have the lineage, so they’re kind of not available in the Gelug sect. From the four Tibetan Mahayana sects, one sect is called Sakya. His Holiness Chobgye Rinpoche is the guru of the head of the Sakya sect, His Holiness Sakya Trizin. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche told me to take the initiation now, because His Holiness Chobgye Trichen Rinpoche, who was in Boudha at that time giving it, was taking the aspect of being very old. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche said, therefore, if I didn’t take the opportunity at that time, because of old age, it might not be possible in future, so therefore it was better to take the opportunity now. Rinpoche was also going, so we invited Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche to teach at almost every meditation center in the West, to give teachings, initiations, whatever people needed. If the initiations were delayed, then I think that gets delayed, so that’s why it happened at this time.
In that way, Rinpoche could spread the lineage of this collection of initiations to many high lamas, to many other geshes, those who have full knowledge of Dharma, those who are able to preserve the whole, entire teachings in all the different aspects, to preserve and be able to spread them. So that Rinpoche can pass the initiations to them is the main thing.
THE NEED TO PRACTICE
So I thought to explain [the more general?] Dharma, but maybe for the more technical things, to ask either Geshe Lama Konchog or Lama Lhundrup, who are excellent teachers, who can be relied on a hundred percent, to explain them. Whether you understand or not, whether the subject fits your mind or not, the most important thing is that the person who teaches should be completely reliable, somebody that you can trust. That’s the most important point.
Whether you can understand the subject or whether the subject fits your mind at the moment or not, it’s an unmistaken subject, it’s the right path, the path that numberless pandits, yogis, have studied, practiced and achieved enlightenment using, including Shakyamuni Buddha.
The person is more important than the words. I’m not sure whether it follows like that in the West or not, but in the East or in Dharma practice, the person is more important than the words. Even with regards to talking about the guru, that is the main analysis.
The idea is not just for inspiration, for encouragement, but so all students learn more, and then do more practice, in the morning, in the evening, to get more practice done with awareness of the main point of the subjects.
For example, if the subject is emptiness, however much you know about emptiness, such as the Madhyamaka explanation of emptiness, if you don’t meditate, if you don’t practice, if you don’t relate it to your own daily life, then problems are still there. Of course, if you have even the intellectual understanding of all the subjects, you have so much freedom in life, you have so much freedom of choice, whether to live in the problem or whether to free yourself from the problem. Even if the wisdom you have is just intellectual wisdom, because of that you still have incredible freedom whether you want to keep your own life in problems or immediately to put the understanding you have learned into the practice and immediately free yourself from the problems. You can immediately free yourself from the problems, it’s completely in your own hands.
But if you don’t even have the intellectual understanding, there’s no freedom in life. If even the intellectual wisdom isn’t there, there’s no freedom to practice, there’s no freedom to liberate yourself from these sufferings.
Meditation, practicing awareness, is very important. That is extremely important. The reason our mind has an absence of realizations is because of not having meditated enough, of not having meditated perfectly. Even if there’s understanding, we have not meditated enough, and not correctly.
Anyway, I think I’ll leave that part today, going over the prayer of sang gye cho dang. I’ll just go to where I stopped the other day, the nature of the mind. I’ll speak a little bit on that and then stop.
THE FOUR KAYAS
Maybe I’ll mention this one first. When we become enlightened, what we achieve, the result, are the four kayas. The omniscient mind, the holy dharma body, is the dharmakaya, and within this there are two: the transcendental wisdom dharmakaya, and the holy body of the self nature. Self nature? The holy nature body, ngo wo nyi ku. The transcendental wisdom dharmakaya is, for example, the omniscient mind, which is the conventional truth. Then the ultimate nature of that is called the holy nature body.
The general definition of the dharmakaya is the wisdom that is free from, or devoid of, all subtle and temporary obscurations. The wisdom that is free from, or devoid of, the temporary obscurations or stains means the disturbing-thought obscurations and obscurations to full knowledge, the obscurations that interfere with the mind being able to fully see all the past, present, future existence. That is the general definition of the wisdom dharmakaya.
The general definition of the holy body of the self nature or nature body is the ultimate sphere of the two purities. In other words, the emptiness of the omniscient mind. The emptiness of the omniscient mind that is pure, being devoid of the two obscurations. That’s why the definition mentions the ultimate sphere of the two purities, meaning that emptiness of that wisdom is pure, free or having ceased the two obscurations, the two stains, the two obscurations.
What you have to understand is this. The omniscient mind itself is called the wisdom dharmakaya and the ultimate nature of the omniscient mind is holy nature body. So the main point here is to try to recognize what it is or on which we are putting these labels.
Then, the holy form body is called rupakaya. The rupakaya, the holy form body, has two aspects: the holy body of complete enjoyment and the holy transformation body. Again within the holy transformation body there are three different types. However, at the moment to have some focus, to have something to think about, look at the four kayas: of the form body, the rupakaya, look at the holy complete enjoyment body and the holy transformation body and of the dharma body, look at the wisdom dharmakaya and the holy nature body.
THE MEANING OF RIG
Here we were talking about what rig means. Within rig are differentiated two types: essence and potential. Within the rig of the Buddha there are two. It is explained in two ways, essence or potential.
I don’t know what different translations there are for rig but it seems one translation is “lineage.” But somehow I thought, for the ear, for the concept it may not sound good. It might seem like you’re talking about racism, black and white, things like that. But with the Tibetan word, the meaning is different but a similar word is used, rig, is used for the race. For example, the children who are born to the king are said to be of the king’s race. This race is to do with the blood generation. They are the generation of the king’s blood and so the king’s race. Because this is the son of the king he has the potential to become the king. Even in his mother’s womb, even though he hasn’t come out yet, he still has the potential to become the king. This baby inside the womb of the mother, the queen, has the potential to become the king and to guide the people later.
Although rig is the same as the word in the Tibetan language for “race” the way it’s used here has nothing to do with the blood, with the blood generation. It has nothing to do with the physical body. Here, rig, “race,” is related to the nature of the mind, the essence of the mind, and the mind’s potential. So, rig, the race of a buddha, the race of the fully enlightened being, has two types. Any causative phenomena that becomes the cause or which takes any of the Buddha’s causative holy body, such as the holy body form or even the wisdom itself, that is called the developing or increasing race.
The other one is the natural abiding race. The natural abiding race is the ultimate nature of the mind. This is the one we meditate or reflect on more. Here now we are talking about the ultimate nature of the mind, our mind, the mind of us sentient beings that is not free from the two obscurations. The definition of the nature abiding race is the ultimate nature of the mind that is stained and that is interrelated to the mind, that becomes the cause of the holy nature body. We’re not talking about the mind itself here but the mind’s ultimate nature.
So, a buddha’s race, rig, has two types like this, which gives us the opportunity to become enlightened, to achieve the four kayas.
Yeah, I’ll stop here.
Lecture 8
EMPTINESS: LIKE A DREAM
You yourself, your own body, your possessions, the surrounding people, friends, enemies, strangers—those that are objects of attachment, anger, ignorance and so forth—these causative phenomena are changing even within every second by cause and conditions.
[Meditate]
They are decaying in every second.
[Meditate]
Because of these reasons, these causative phenomena can be stopped at any time.
[Meditate]
This human body that you have, this particular life, the I, the possessions, the objects of attachment—friends—the objects of anger—enemies—the objects of ignorance—strangers—these objects can be stopped at any time.
[Meditate]
Because of all these reasons, this is the reality.
[Meditate]
With this awareness, with this realization of impermanence and death, there is freedom in life. There’s peace. Without this awareness of the reality of the causative phenomena, its impermanence, there are only problems. There are only obstacles in life, in the practice.
So, there is no reason at all for ignorance, anger or attachment to arise. There’s no point.
On the top of this, just like the dream-time life, life in a dream, the concepts in the dream, when you are dreaming, everything looks real, even though what appears to your mind is a projection of the hallucinated mind. It’s an appearance of the hallucinated mind.
Without the mind, there are no appearances in a dream. Without the mind, there are no appearances of things in a dream. There’s no way for these appearances to happen.
In a dream, without the mind there’s nothing, there is no subject which puts all these labels: I, action, object, I, action, object; this is a friend, this is an enemy, this is a stranger; this is a house, this is my child, this is my husband, this is my wife, this is my possession, this is the office. Without the mind there is no subject that puts all these labels, all these names to the things. Without the mind there is no subject that labels, that gives names to the base.
That is one example of how things that you see in a dream are a creation of the mind; they come from the mind. They come from the mind.
The other thing is that appearances are productions, projections, of the mind. One way to understand it is this. The label is put on the base by the mind, and then, after the label is put, it appears that way. Whatever label you put, it appears like that, you see it that way. This is how the things that you perceive in a dream come from the mind. The other thing is what you see in the dream are projections of the mind, according to the imprints that are on the mind. Because they are projections according to the mental state, according to the quality of the mind, all this comes from the mind. It is very clear that what you see in a dream is nothing, even though it appears to your mind as real, independent, inherently existent, existing from its own side. It seems to have nothing to do with the creator, the mind. According to appearance, according to your belief, during the dream, it’s exactly like this.
Now you can see what the reality of the dream is, how it happens, you can see what the actuality is and what the hallucination is. Even the dream itself is like this. By analyzing you can see what you normally believe is completely wrong, completely false.
The reason I’m bringing up the dream as an example, in the dream there’s the appearance of a concrete house, an independent, inherently existent house. If you dream of Kopan, then it’s an independent, inherently existent Kopan—the hills, the monasteries, the houses, the dormitories, the places where you eat the food, the road and so forth, the difficult parts of the road and the dust and so forth, all the houses—everything’s very real. It’s real in the sense of existing from its own side, inherently existent, or independent.
When you’re dreaming of Kopan, there’s you, the I, the real one, the inherently existent one, the action, the object. This is there. This appearance is also in the dream. It is there, this ordinary appearance, so real, so concrete, something, inherently existent from its own side, this appearance also happens in the dream. And also, not only is there the appearance but there’s also the belief. There is not only the appearance but there’s also the belief in these things. On these appearances there’s the strong belief that it’s true. These things are also there in the dream, during the dream life, when you’re dreaming.
As I explained before, it doesn’t mean it’s true, it doesn’t mean it’s true. Because things appear this way, it doesn’t mean it’s true to you. Because you believe it, doesn’t mean it’s true. This instinctive mind is the ignorance that you’re born with. This is another term. It might be called “instinct” in science or psychology, what’s there without being taught, the concepts that come from your own side. This is the ignorance that you’re born with, abiding within your own mental continuum from the beginningless rebirths, the simultaneously born concept of true existence.
Such a strong appearance of concrete, inherently existent, independent existence is also there in the dream, which is not true at all. Then the strong belief that it’s real is also there. This strong wrong concept is uncontrollably happening. Believing that these things are true is there. Using the things you see in a dream as an example, it’s easy to understand that it’s not true, that they don’t in reality exist.
EMPTINESS: WE NEED A VALID BASE
Even though it’s the same, that they are merely labeled by the mind, just that alone doesn’t mean things exist. Just that alone doesn’t mean things exist. That’s not enough reason, that’s not the complete reason for things to exist. Not just by the mind labeling.
If just the mind labeling something were enough for it to exist, if it were sufficient, then millions of people who want to become prime minister, who want to become president, wouldn’t have to put any effort or expense, such as spending money on the campaign, or having somebody sponsor them, all these things. They wouldn’t have to worry so much about giving all those speeches. Going to all the different states, and then debating, to check who is better. If just the mind labeling were enough to make things exist, then almost everyone in that country might become president. Except those who don’t want to be president, who just want to have a good time. Those who want to be free, who want to have a free life.
If just the mind putting the label were sufficient, then in one small country almost everybody would become the king, would become the prime minister, the president, would become a millionaire. If you want to become a millionaire you just have to label yourself, “I’m a millionaire.” That should help you become millionaire.
In the same way, if we simply think we’re enlightened, then in that case, we wouldn’t need to generate all the realizations of the path, we wouldn’t need to take all the trouble to purify and to accumulate merit in order to achieve the realizations of the graduated path to enlightenment. We would just simply think, “I’m enlightened” and the minute, the second we thought we were enlightened, we’d become enlightened.
In order for things to exist, it not only depends on the mind—the mind merely imputes—not only that, there needs to be a valid base. There needs to be a valid base for the mind to label, it depends on that. Only then can things exist.
In a dream, it’s exactly like this, like we see here. Now we have to question whether what we see in the daytime is true. Is that true or also not true? It’s a question; we have to analyze.
To repeat again, in a dream things appear as real, as existing from their own side, and the strong belief in that appearance is there. But when we analyze all this, the concept, what we see is that in the dream it’s not true. First of all, the things we see in a dream do not exist. As I gave the example yesterday, if you found a million dollars in a dream, if that were true then, when you woke up, you should have the million dollars. In the daytime you should also have the million dollars, if what you saw in the dream existed, if that was true. But it’s not.
It’s exactly, exactly like that for us, except for those people who are able to recognize a dream as a dream, those meditators, those practitioners of Secret Mantra, who use the dream path to achieve enlightenment. Even ordinary people who are able to recognize the dream as a dream, during that time there’s no concept that it’s true. Since there’s recognition that this is a dream, there’s no belief that what appears is true, that it exists in reality. There isn’t this concept, this belief, because of the understanding that this is a dream. Except for these people, there is a strong belief that what appears in a dream is true.
The difference is in the object that we see in a dream and the object we see in the daytime, the I, action, object, all these things. The object of the dreamtime—buying a lottery ticket and winning many millions of dollars and so forth—that doesn’t exist at all. But in daytime, buying a lottery ticket and then winning many millions of dollars, when that happens, that exists, because the lottery ticket itself also exists. The buyer—we ourselves—exist, the action of buying exists, and the object—the lottery ticket—exists, and receiving millions of dollars, that also exists.
All these things exist because there is a valid basis, the aggregates, and the mind that labels the I, and there’s a valid base, this paper we receive that has numbers and explanations, then the action of paying money to seller exists, because there’s the valid base, and there’s the mind which labels the action. There is the valid base, that particular official or that particular paper with all those numbers. Based on the paper with all the designs or the figures, depending on that valid base, the thought labels it “lottery ticket.” This is the valid base that can allow us to win the lottery. It has this function. If we choose the right number, it can do this function.
Then, with all those pieces of paper, all those valid bases of the millions of dollars, all those officially recognized pieces of paper which have all the necessary designs, the numbers and so forth, then the thought labels the “dollars.” There are this number of dollars. When we have those pieces of paper with those designs and those numbers, we are then able to buy a million dollars’ worth or five million dollars’ worth or whatever, of things that cost that much. The pieces of paper are able to function in this way.
These things that the mind labels depending on a valid base, these things exist. The things we see in a dream, even though they are the same objects, don’t exist because there is no valid base to be labeled. The valid base does not exist. There is no valid base. The base upon which we label is a hallucination. In a dream the bases that the mind labels, what appears to the mind, are all hallucinations. They don’t exist.
So, this is just to make it simple or short, to finish this part of the subject, to get some idea, to give you something to think about at the moment.
Because the valid base—the aggregates, the association of body and mind—exists, because of that reason, the mind merely imputes the I onto them and then believes in that. This is because of the valid base. Therefore, the conclusion is that the I doesn’t exist from its own side. The I is empty.
The same with the action of buying. Because of the valid base—paying money, buying that official piece of paper that receives the name “lottery ticket” which can function to win us money, which has all the prerequisites, the printing and the figures—because of that valid reason, the mind labels, the mind merely imputes “buying” onto that and believes in that. Therefore, buying is empty from its own side. There is no real buying from its own side.
Then, the object we buy, the lottery ticket, because of the valid base, the reason—the official paper that has all the necessary numbers or the designs, that allows us to officially win or lose money—because of that valid base, the mind merely imputes “lottery ticket” and believes in that. Therefore, the lottery ticket exists, but it’s empty from its own side. There is no real lottery ticket from its own side.
Then because of the valid base—all those pieces of paper that have all those numbers and designs that are officially accepted, agreed by the people, by the government, as money—because of this valid base, then the mind merely imputes “millions of dollars” and so forth, and then believes in that. Therefore, there is no real millions of dollars. Even though the millions of dollars exist, there’s no real millions of dollars existing from its own side. The million dollars is empty from its own side.
These are the realities. These are the realities of subject, action, object.
Therefore, we can see that there is no true, unlabeled, independent I, no real I from its own side, doing the real action of buying the real lottery ticket, buying the independent, inherently existent, real lottery ticket, and gaining independent, inherently existent winnings, the independent, inherently existent millions of dollars, something concrete, something real from its own side. All these things are completely empty, all these appearances are completely empty right there. All these are completely hallucinations. All of these are exactly like a dream, the appearance in the dream.
So, it is the same thing, it’s the same thing, it’s like this. Now you are here in Kopan, in the gompa, in this new gompa. You are here in this gompa, in Kopan, listening to teachings from this crazy boy called Lama Zopa with a lot of noises. In one sentence there are many hundreds of noises and many pauses.
This is the same. All these things that are merely labeled by the mind, because of the reason of these valid bases, these all exist, they are happening, they are existing now. But, but this real I, this inherently existent, independent I, this something that is real from its own side, and the action of listening which again is inherently existent, real from its own side, and the teachings, the concrete, real teachings, in the sense of being independent, inherently existent, from Lama Zopa, the real one, in the sense, inherently existent, independent, not being merely imputed by the mind, something concrete, [none of these exist]. The place, the new hall, appears as not merely labeled, as real in the sense of inherently existent, independent, having nothing to do with the mind, nothing to do with the perceiver, it looks like these have nothing to do with the perceiver, the mind—all these parts are completely empty. All these parts are exactly the same as the objects in a dream. It’s exactly the same as if we are dreaming now, exactly the same as what we see in a dream. It’s as if we’re having a dream now, of the real I taking real teachings from a real Lama Zopa at the real Kopan, the real monastery, in the real new hall. It seems something concrete, real from its own side. These two are exactly the same; they do not exist. They are exactly the same; they are empty.
EMPTINESS: THE THREE WAYS OF SEEING A MAGICIAN’S ILLUSION
Since I went over this, it’s explained in the teachings using the example of the magician. When a magician transforms some material, such as wood, through the power of mantra, it causes the audience’s eye sense to become affected and see what isn’t there. The magician transforms the material into the form of a beautiful man or a woman or different things, a beautiful palace, whatever, and that makes the audience see the things in that way. The power of the magician’s mantra affects the eye sense of the audience, causing the eye sense to become hallucinated. That’s why they see the things. Even though it’s a piece of wood or something, they see the beautiful palace, the beautiful apartment or beautiful man, woman or something.
Among the people who see this, there could be one type of person who actually believes that what they see is real, that it exists in the reality—this beautiful man or woman, this beautiful apartment, all these things that the magician has transformed. Then there’s another type of person who has the same appearance, but they don’t believe in it. They don’t believe it because they know the magician has transformed an ordinary object, so they don’t have the belief that this is real.
Then there’s a third type of person whose eye sense is not affected by the magician’s mantra. Because the eye sense is not affected, what they see is just a piece of wood or whatever, the basic thing that the magician used for transformation. They don’t see it; they don’t have the hallucination. They don’t have that appearance.
So, there are a few types of people. There are three groups: one has appearance and believes that the hallucination is true, real; one has the hallucination but there’s no belief and the third one doesn’t have the hallucination because the eye sense is not affected by the power of mantra of the magician.
Similarly, things—the I, action, object, all these things—appear as real, as inherently existent, independent, something concrete from their own side, and among beings, there are three different groups. Even though the way everything exists is being merely labeled by the mind, everything appears as concrete and independent, inherently existent, real from its own side. Some sentient beings believe a hundred percent that this is true.
Then, another group of sentient beings have realized emptiness, have realized the ultimate nature of phenomena, the ultimate nature of the I, the ultimate nature of the action, the ultimate nature of the object. For those who have realized emptiness—the reality of subject, action, object, all these things—even though they still have the dualistic view, seeing the things that exist being merely labeled by the mind, appearing as something real, concrete, inherently existent from their own side, for them there’s no belief in these things. There’s no belief that these appearances are true.
For those arya, transcendent beings who have realized emptiness, except when they are in equipoise meditation, with their wisdom one-pointedly concentrating in emptiness, then again they have appearance, they have the hallucination, the dualistic view, the truly existent appearance. This will continue until the subtle imprints, the subtle obscurations, are purified by generating the remedy path, by completing the remedy path. Only when the subtle imprints left by the disturbing thoughts, the concept of true existence, are completely purified, will there be nothing that projects, that decorates true existence onto that which exists being merely labeled by the mind. There’s nothing that projects, there’s nothing that decorates this concept of true existence onto the merely labeled I, action, object and so forth. Only then, only at that time, when the subtle imprints left by the concept of true existence are completely purified by completing the remedy path within the mind, then the person is completely free from the dualistic view, the hallucination, the appearance of true existence. At that time then the mind becomes fully enlightened, and that person becomes a buddha, a fully enlightened being.
Among living beings, the third group is the enlightened beings. Enlightened beings don’t have this appearance of inherently existent objects, objects that are truly existent, independent, concrete, real from their own side. They don’t have even this hallucination.
EMPTINESS: HOW WE SEE THINGS IS JUST ONE VIEW OF MANY
So, you can see how things appear is according to the level of the perceiver’s mind, according to the quality of the mind. What external things we see, how we see things, what we see, how things appear to us, is according to the level of our mind, according to the quality of our mind. So, the whole thing comes from the mind. This is one way to understand this.
Because we see things one way doesn’t mean everybody sees it that way. Everything—the I, action, object—everything for us seems like this, something real, concrete, from its own side, but that doesn’t mean everyone sees this, that everyone has to see it this way, it doesn’t mean that. Even relating to one person, one sentient being, ourselves, we are in the first group, where belief and appearance are similar. We have the appearance and we believe in that, we believe in the hallucination, that the hallucination is a reality. We believe that it’s true.
Even if we are in this first group now, later, through meditation, by realizing emptiness, by developing wisdom, we then become part of the second group that doesn’t cling to these things. Even though there’s still the appearance, we don’t cling. Even though there’s this appearance happening, we don’t have the belief, the clinging. Since everything is like a dream, there’s no clinging. Again, by developing this wisdom still further, by completing this wisdom realizing emptiness, by completely removing the stains of the mind, we become part of the third group, enlightened beings who don’t even have the hallucination, the dualistic view. Therefore, the way things appear changes as we develop our mind.
Even in day-to-day life, how things appear to us depends on how we look at them, how we judge them. For example, how we see a person depends on how we judge that person. If it’s a place, whether it’s a pleasant or unpleasant place, whether it’s comfortable or uncomfortable, clean or dirty, all depends on how we judge it. We judge it and then it appears that way.
Normally, in our day-to-day life, how things appear, how things exist, is that way. The view of the object we now have, the view of the five sense objects that our senses experience, what appears to us right here and now, this is just one view. The view we have now, how things appear to us, this is just one view. This is not all the views. This is not the only view that exists, this is just one of the views, according to our present quality of mind, the level of mind.
Therefore, we can’t think that if something exists it should only be this way—the way we see it—otherwise, it doesn’t exist. How we see it, it should be this way; how we believe it to be, it should be this way. That reason doesn’t cover, that reason does not cover. That is simply related to one type of mind.
Anyway, I didn’t mean to talk long on this. It happened without choice. So, to go back to yesterday’s subject. Just to finish that part.
This is very useful in our daily life. This is one of the thought transformation practices. Looking at these appearances I’ve just gone through, all these appearances that are pure, impure, beautiful, ugly, clean, dirty, good and bad, all these things, when we practice awareness, when in our life we bring our attention to how these things appear to us, now we understand that how we see things is just one view according to the level of our mind, the quality of our mind. As we develop the wisdom realizing emptiness we see that these things that appear as inherently existent, existing from their own side, are not true, they’re empty. Not having that understanding, our mind apprehends that they are true. As things appear this way, then they’re true. If we haven’t realized emptiness, not developed wisdom, we can’t see things as an illusion, as a dream, where there is no basis for clinging, no basis for anger to arise.
The degree to which our mind, that is the perceiver, is impure, there is that degree of impurity in the appearance. As the mind that projects, that produces the appearances—that produces the objects, the appearances—as it becomes that much purer, the appearances become purer. As the mind becomes cleaner, then the objects the mind sees, the appearances, become cleaner. It’s a dependent arising.
We can use this in relation to any object we find problems with. It could be various objects, many different objects at different times, or even in one day. By bringing the attention to the object, by practicing awareness, we see how this object—this person, this place—is only one view. This is our view according to the quality of our mind. This is one view. Other beings have different views of that person, that living being, that place, whatever it is. Other beings have different views, possibly purer than ours. Different. In others’ minds, in others’ views, this object doesn’t appear a problem as it appears to our view, to our mind.
EMPTINESS: FIRST RECOGNIZE THE HALLUCINATION
This is extremely beneficial, this is extremely beneficial. The very first meditation of the graduated path to enlightenment, guru devotion, involves trying to achieve the realization, the devotion, of seeing from our own side that the guru, the virtuous friend, is a buddha, having this realization, the devotion of seeing the guru as a buddha. To have that realization for guru yoga practice, we need this awareness that how we see it is our own view, that other people, other beings who have a different level of mind, a different quality of mind, see it in a different way. That point shows, that proves the realization of guru devotion, which is the root of the path to enlightenment.
Then, also, in daily life problems, it’s the same with the person we call an enemy, the one we dislike, we get angry with, the one we hate. That meditation also works with that. And also even non-living objects, it’s the same. The whole idea is that all this good and bad, pure and impure, all comes from our own mind; it’s all dependent on the mind. So the emphasis comes to subdue the mind. The emphasis is on the mind, to subdue the mind that makes us see other sentient beings as our enemy. Other beings can include buddhas, it can include sentient beings. It’s our own mind that makes us see others as our enemy, so the emphasis comes on the mind, to subdue this mind. The emphasis comes on the mind that projects, that makes us see things as impure, that makes us see things as difficult. Again the emphasis comes to subdue this mind.
Even when there’s no problem in life, this mind creates problems. This mind makes other people become problems for us. This mind makes the conditions, it makes the outside phenomena become problems for us. This mind makes a friend become a problem for us, making the friend become our enemy. This mind makes material possessions become problems for us; it makes wealth become a problem for us. All living beings, all non-living things become problems for us and this all comes from the mind. This mind made it, this mind made it. While we can use things for peace, instead this mind makes them become problems for us. So the whole emphasis comes to subdue the mind. The basic key, the basic thing is to subdue our own mind, to transform our own mind, to eliminate all the thoughts that create the problems, all the wrong concepts. That’s why the Buddha said, “Subdue your own mind; that is the teaching of the Buddha.”
From this we can understand how we get incredible freedom by practicing Buddhadharma, how we give ourselves peace in our life.
Maybe I’ll excuse myself here. Maybe I’ll stop here, anyway.
I thought maybe to talk on the mind tonight a little bit. This way, hopefully there’ll be some small benefit, particularly for those who have some lack of clarity or some difficulties in regards to the continuation of the mind, to the idea of a life before this or a life after this. In this way, it doesn’t take more time away from the other parts of the introduction. At this time I thought to maybe mention about the buddha nature a little bit, to just get through some of that part of the subject.
Then the actual lamrim course we can do in the dream. We can do another course in the nighttime. Anyway, I’m joking. So you have to go to bed early and have many hours sleep. Anyway, joking. So it becomes two-month course. I’m joking.
So maybe today, as I mentioned, practice strong awareness of the things you see in a dream and the things you see at other times, putting the emphasis in what exists and what doesn’t exist. What exists and what doesn’t exist: yourself, the action, the object, what you see around you—the people, the place, the food, whatever—on that basis, what exists and what doesn’t exist. Apply the example of the dream, putting the dream on top of daily life. The things that do not exist: the I, the action, the object, all those concrete, real, independent things that are not true, that are completely false. Put the dream on the top of your daily life in order to realize, in order to recognize what is a hallucination, or a hallucinated appearance—the hallucinated I, action, object, all these things—and through that what is the ultimate nature of these things. This brings you to the conclusion, to see the ultimate nature of the I, action, object.
In other words, look at the I, action, object, look at the people, look at the place, look at things around you, the five sense objects, one after another, then analyze how they appear to you, whether they appear unlabeled or labeled. How they exist in reality is merely labeled by the mind, but they don’t appear that way.
Think of yourself. For example, I say I am Zopa and I believe it, but before the abbot who granted the ordination gave me the name “Zopa,” Zopa did not exist. It didn’t exist. Zopa only existed after the abbot’s own mind merely imputed “Zopa”. Similarly, you can relate that to yourself. You can tell yourself that before your parents gave you your name, George or Barbara or Nicholas or whatever, before your parents gave you that name, in your mind Barbara didn’t exist. It only existed after your parents merely imputed on the body and mind. This is how things exist, by being merely labeled by the mind, in this case, the parents.
So, use these examples to understand how this exists being merely labeled by the mind, depending on the valid base. However, it doesn’t appear this way. We don’t see it that way, we don’t realize it that way. In the same way, our mind constantly merely imputes the I, by depending on the valid base, the aggregates, but even though that is the reality we don’t see it this way. We don’t realize this, we don’t see it this way, according to reality. We see completely the opposite, which is not true, which is not true.
From there, you can expand, doing a similar analysis with all the rest—action, object, the things around you, the five sense objects. Then, with all these objects, form, sound, smell, taste and so forth, try to practice awareness, try to recognize what is the thing that doesn’t exist. First, the I, you, what is called that person, then the objects.
Recognize that thing that is a hallucination that doesn’t exist, and then, similarly with the things that you see in the day, put the dream on top of this. Try to realize, try to see how all these things are empty.
It might be quite early for you do this meditation, but, without these basic teachings, for some people this can help to understand karma. It helps to understand, by recognizing what is a hallucination, to do this scientific analysis—the Buddha’s, the Omniscient One’s, science—explaining how things are not independent. Except for explaining very subtle points such as subtle dependent arising and ultimate right view, to a certain extent, even the top scientists talk about how things are not independent. Famous scientists talk about how things are dependent on the mind, how things are not independent. And I guess especially how things exist by depending on the parts. To a certain extent they talk about dependent arising, the absence of independence.
So today, do a strong meditation in the break time, while you are walking, eating, lying down, while you are enjoying the sun, whatever. Whatever you do, do this meditation practice strongly, analyzing what is a hallucination, what is reality. The conclusion is to practice awareness of the reality, the reality of the whole thing. But if you don’t recognize the hallucination first, the thing that doesn’t exist, then there’s no way you can recognize reality. There’s no way to think about, no way to meditate on, no way to touch on the reality of things, if you don’t know what is false.
So then tomorrow at break time again do a meditation practice very strongly, this time on universal responsibility. Break times are also meditation. Begin each meditation with strong mindfulness. Generally, whatever subject comes up, practice strong awareness of that, not only during sitting meditation but also at other times. Everything is related to that; the whole of life is related to that. That is very intensive but it’s the best way to do the course.
That way the mind is transformed into Dharma. With the practice of mindfulness the mind is continuously kept away from ignorance, away from wrong concepts.
So, I’ll stop here.
Notes
3 Although the transliteration for the lung that is a wind disease (literally meaning “wind”) and that for oral transmission is the same, these are two separate words in Tibetan with two slightly different pronunciations. [Return to text]
