Verses from Praise to Bodhicitta

[Rinpoche and students recite Prayers Before Teachings]

I came late! That is my excuse, my excuse to mother Prajnaparamita. Is the praise finished? [Ven. Karin: Almost.] OK. Sorry, I came late due to laziness.

Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche said [in Praise to Bodhicitta]:

[33] For raising your spirits when you are down,
For removing arrogance when you are flush,
Nothing in the world compares with the
Non-deceiving friend that is bodhicitta.

When we are discouraged, at that time if we practice bodhicitta, if we generate bodhicitta, if we have an actual realization, there’s no question, it generates happiness. When we are rich, it eliminates pride and arrogance. In that way, bodhicitta is our unbetraying friend, the friend who never cheats us in all existence. It is only bodhicitta.

If we have bodhicitta, even if we don’t have a realization but if we are practicing generating it, when we feel discouraged, down, thinking we are hopeless, then the thought of bodhicitta generates happiness. If we are wealthy, even if we don’t have a realization, just practicing bodhicitta eliminates pride.

[Praise to Bodhicitta says:

[50] Bodhicitta gets rid of nastiness.
Bodhicitta banishes suffering.
Bodhicitta frees one from fear.
Bodhicitta stops bad conduct.]

With bodhicitta, we abandon harming others, we abandon harming ourselves or others. With bodhicitta our suffering is eliminated. Here, it says “taken out” like having an operation in a hospital to take out a cancer or something. With bodhicitta, the suffering comes out or the suffering is taken out. We heal the suffering. With bodhicitta, we are free from fears. With bodhicitta, we stop all negative actions and vices.

[Praise to Bodhicitta says:

[90] Remember bodhicitta when your courage begins to wane.
Remember bodhicitta when you slack off from doing things for others.
Remember bodhicitta when you become lazy.
Remember bodhicitta when you feel run down.]

When our heart is low, when we lack zeal, z-e-a-l, heart strength, when we don’t have much courage, we should remember bodhicitta. Any time we feel weak working for sentient beings, like becoming director of a Dharma center—that is another example—when we think we can’t do it or we can’t take responsibility for working for other sentient beings, for benefiting them [we should remember bodhicitta.]

When we become loose working for others, for example, right now, I didn’t make it in time to come here. When we become lazy or depressed, we should remember bodhicitta.

Mentally, we don’t need to go around the world looking for a cure for depression. Bodhicitta is here; the teachings on bodhicitta are here. We have the lamrim. We can read the books [on it], the lamrim, the whole thing. We have received teachings on bodhicitta; we have meditated on it, so it’s right here. So, when we are depressed, we remember bodhicitta. Do you understand? Keep that in mind. And my usual thing. Write it down! That is very important, otherwise, we have the method right here but then we look in the world, in the sky, in the ocean, for happiness.

[Praise to Bodhicitta says:

[125] The philosophy connected with bodhicitta is supreme.
The meditation connected with bodhicitta is supreme.
The spiritual activity connected with bodhicitta is supreme.
The result connected with bodhicitta is supreme.]

Practicing the [philosophy of the] right view is the best when connected to bodhicitta. It’s very important; write it down. Then, meditation is best related to bodhicitta and the best conduct is related to bodhicitta. The result, the best is related to bodhicitta. The best result is enlightenment. Even being free from samsara ourselves is not enough; that is not the purpose of our life. Even that is not enough. The purpose of our life is to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings: to free the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings, to free them from oceans of samsaric sufferings, and not only that, to bring them to peerless happiness, the total cessation of gross and subtle obscurations and the completion of all realizations.

The Purpose of Our Life Is to Repay Others’ Kindness

The word for buddha in Tibetan is sang gye. Sang means “cessation” and gye means “developed” [all the good qualities]. [When we have that we are enlightened.] Many people translate “enlightenment” as “awakening.” A simple example is waking from sleep. When we are asleep, we are totally in the dark, never knowing what is happening around us. But from there we wake up and become aware of what is happening around, of the dangers or whatever. We wake up. That is a simple example, but of course here “waking up” means becoming free from not only the gross obscurations, which arhats do to achieve nirvana, but also the subtle obscurations, the leftover delusions. When we cease even the subtle obscurations, we can complete the realizations and achieve the awakened state. “Awakening” or “enlightenment” are synonyms. Both words have the same meaning. Many people translate enlightenment as the awakened state.

So, the purpose of our life is to bring sentient beings to that state. For that reason, in order to do that without the slightest mistake, we ourselves need to achieve the state of omniscience. Even though there are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas working for sentient beings, that is our duty, our responsibility. Our responsibility is to free all sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment by ourselves alone.

That is our job, our duty. It is the way to repay the kindness of sentient beings. Therefore, we need to actualize the whole path to enlightenment. Therefore, we need to do the three actions of listening, reflecting and meditating on the lamrim, the essence of all the Buddhadharma. Therefore, we need to do the listening.

I mentioned this yesterday, but I want to say it again today. What we are doing is [for everybody]; it’s for these tiny ants going around looking for food. It’s for that. What we are doing right now is for them, to free them not only from the lower realms but from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment. Even the tiniest insects we see going around, even the birds outside, the dogs, the people, whoever we see, it’s for everybody. It’s for everyone we see—everyone making noise, making a noise expressing their suffering, making an angry noise, making a noise of attachment. It’s for everyone, for every sentient being, and not only in this world. There are numberless universes with numberless sentient beings, so it’s for everyone.

If possible, whenever we do any practice, such as reciting a mala of OM MANI PADME HUM or whatever mantra, whatever we are doing—meditation or anything—at the beginning we must remember that—“I’m doing this for everyone.” Otherwise, “sentient beings” becomes just on the lips. Then, even though there are skies of sentient beings, when those around us are angry, because of our obscured, proud mind, we don’t practice patience, we don’t practice loving kindness and compassion. When we actually meet them, they must be something else [other than the sentient beings we are trying to save]. Maybe they are not even sentient beings! Because all the people we have problems with are not sentient beings, they have to be killed. The sentient beings are in the sky. Actually, we’re not sure what sentient beings are!

 It becomes like that if we don’t do the practice well. Then, when the sound of people living in the center or at home or wherever [annoy us], making us angry, they are to be killed. In the meditation texts, it says “sentient beings” but maybe they are just something in the sky, something like that. That is totally wrong. We have to start the practice with the sentient beings we can see around us. From there [we extend] to the infinite sentient beings. Our meditation, our prostration, everything we do is intended for them. We have to do that. That is the Mahayana practice. We have to bring that awareness, that compassion and loving kindness, into whatever our practice is, like the seven techniques of Mahayana cause and effect on the basis of equilibrium meditation.

Maybe I’ll mention two or three words, then move on.

The Three Capable Beings

Nagarjuna said in Precious Garland,

[80] A person is not earth, not water,
Not fire, not wind, not space,
Not consciousness, and not all of them.
What person is there other than these?

Kye bu (person) actually means “capable person.” There are three types of capable being. The lower capable being [seeks freedom from lower rebirths] by gaining realizations on the perfect human rebirth—how it is highly useful in three ways and difficult to receive again—on the nine-round meditation on impermanence and death and on the lower realm sufferings.

Then, seeing the qualities of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, we rely on them to be free from our suffering. Not only that. We rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to become free from lower nirvana, to not fall down into the lower nirvana but to achieve great nirvana, enlightenment. Then, by protecting our karma, we have the realizations of the graduated path of a lower capable being.

Then, with the graduated path of a middle capable being, we realize how samsara is in the nature of suffering and we develop the renunciation to be free from samsara, and to achieve nirvana, everlasting happiness. That is the middle capable being.

And as a higher capable being we let go of the selfish mind and attain bodhicitta. That is the motivation. Then, we practice the six perfections, the bodhisattva’s conduct to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. The higher capable being [works] to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings: the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts and beings of each realm, to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. That is a higher capable being.

Seeing the Suffering of Others Inspires Us to Practice the Dharma

Then, there is also an “ordinary” capable being, one who is only grasping for the happiness of this life, only following the happiness of this life, like animals, like ants, like snakes, like tigers. There’s only happiness now. A human being with this attitude has a human body but the attitude, the mind, is the same as the insects. There is no difference. To them, there is nothing else, only this life’s happiness, now. Working for this life is just that, to achieve happiness now. Of course, tigers have nothing else to eat but meat. They don’t eat fruit, just meat, so they have to kill, they have to eat other animals alive. Also snakes and many other animals are not vegetarian. There are many animals like deer or zebras who are vegetarian, but many animals which are not vegetarian. For them, staying alive means eating meat, eating other animals alive.

We could be born as a tiger after this human body. With this human body we go to school and university, we gain many high degrees, we become famous. We have so much education in this and that, but then, after we die, we are reborn as a tiger, for example. When we are born as a tiger, we have to eat living animals. That’s our life. That’s the nature of a tiger’s life. We have no choice, chasing after those pitiful animals, like the deer, who do nothing to harm others.

Once I saw on TV, there was a tiger just standing there and there was a deer at some distance, pawing the ground very strongly. This is the only thing they can do to show power. They don’t have any dangerous claws or anything—it’s the tiger who has the claws—so they thump on the ground. That’s all they can do. The tiger was there, but maybe its stomach was full. It didn’t do anything, but usually they stay very quiet in the grass and then, when they are very close, they run at what they aim to eat. Of course, the deer always loses and the tiger eats it.

For myself, for example, if after this I’m born as a tiger, I won’t manifest as a tiger to protect other animals, to help other animals. There was a tiger I once saw on a video helping a small baby deer. It was trying to protect it, and although the deer baby didn’t go near the tiger it also didn’t go away. It was very interesting. It was not afraid. It didn’t go far away but also it didn’t go near the tiger. Once, the tiger pressed its tail, trying to keep it nearby. Sometimes it carried the baby deer. [Rinpoche indicates by the scruff of the neck] It put the deer in the middle of some long grass to save it. I heard that when the tiger went away for some time another tiger came to eat the deer, but the deer was not there. The other tiger came to eat the deer and this tiger was trying to guard it. Then, the other tiger didn’t bother it.

If we are not under the control of karma and delusions, if we are free from that, like the bodhisattvas, we can purposely manifest as an animal to protect other animals. That is different; that is a great holy being’s activity. But when normal samsaric beings like us are born as a tiger, we eat animals to survive. Also, like those birds, I don’t know what you call them, with a big beak, huge skin and wings, then they eat [their prey]. It takes time; it’s amazing.

For example, if we are born as an ant we eat worms. A worm will be attacked by many hundreds of ants. If we are born as a common samsaric being, it is like that. That is our life, so we do like that. We have done that numberless times already. After we were born as a human being, because we didn’t meet and practice the Dharma, we didn’t purify negative karma, we didn’t do Vajrasattva, because of that, numberless times we were reborn as an ant, or a snake or a tiger. We were born as all those fearful animals numberless times. Due to skies of ignorance, we don’t remember our beginningless rebirths.

We have had beginningless rebirths already numberless times. Again, if we don’t meet the Dharma and practice it in this life, if we don’t do purification, purifying negative karma, if we don’t change our mind from a bad heart to a good heart, we will have to undergo numberless changes in the six realms again. Then we will be born as tigers and different animals eating meat, being unbelievably fearful for other animals, killing countless other animals. We will have to be born again like that numberless times. It’s so pitiful.

The reality is like that. Even if we know the word “lamrim” but we don’t practice, we don’t practice awareness, when we see sentient beings we don’t think that. The mind is totally in hallucination, not only ignorant of true existence but hallucinated, differentiating things as good and bad, causing attachment and anger and different delusions, such as pride and so forth, to arise. On the basis of [believing in] true existence, on that base hallucination, the different delusions arise. We live our whole life like that, in piles of hallucination.

It is so important to see this. I mentioned [walking along] the beach as an example. When we go to the market or wherever there are people, we must remember that. When we go shopping in the market, when we are in the street or in a cinema or restaurant, wherever we see many people, we must remember that these people have been suffering in the six realms from beginningless rebirths because they haven’t met the Dharma. And again in this life they don’t have the karma to meet the Dharma, so there is no way to practice. Their understanding is far from the Dharma. Not understanding karma, they are just like animals, only living for this life, nothing else. They will live for however many years, months or weeks—I don’t know—as a human being, and then the lower realms. [They have had lives in] the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm numberless times; they have suffered numberless times. They can’t see the end of samsara. They have no idea. Their mind is totally skies of ignorance, totally dark, without any light.

Thinking like this, compassion must arise. We have no choice when we think of their deep suffering in the past and in the future. We have no choice; compassion must arise for them. That inspires us to practice the Dharma. That inspires us to practice the Dharma, to always study the Dharma, the Buddha’s teachings. Then, our mind wakes up more and more and more. The more we study, the more we wake up. The more we learn the correct Dharma, the more our mind wakes up.

Then, we are able to help others; we are better able to benefit others. That is the advantage of studying the Dharma. His Holiness gave general advice recently to many monasteries (although not related [solely] to monks), saying that even if we don’t believe in reincarnation, we should still study the Dharma. Just like science, it can help. His Holiness divides the Dharma into three parts and one part is the science of mind, to help the world, to help others. So, with compassion for others, when we want to help others, we have to develop ourselves.

The Real I and the Snake

Sorry, that was an expansion of the meaning of kye bu, “capable person.” That is the correct translation of kye bu. There was another translation from Dharamsala in the old times. I forgot? [Ven. Ailsa: Scope.] Scope. That is OK but it’s not the exact translation of kye bu. It does give kind of the meaning of being “capable.” Kye bu, sorry, I ran away.

[A person is not earth, not water,
Not fire, not wind, not space,
Not consciousness, and not all of them.
What person is there other than these?]

What I was explaining was an ordinary capable being who only seeks this life’s happiness. Relating [the verse] to ourselves, “is not earth, not water.” “Not earth” means not the body and “not water” means not liquid. Neither is a person fire, wind or space, the other elements. The person is not even consciousness. The person is not [any of the elements separately]—earth, water, fire, wind, space—and not even altogether. The person is not all this.

We can relate this to the “person” or here the “capable being.” We can say “I,” as in “I am.” We can meditate on this relating it to ourselves: the I is not earth, not water, not fire, not wind, not space; the I is not even the consciousness. The I is not any of these separately. And the I is not all these. But then where is the person? “Other than these, where is the person?” Separate from that, other than that, where is the person? Other than all these, where is the I? Where is it separately from that?

One by one, the I is also not the consciousness. All together the I is not even that. And yet, it doesn’t exist separately from all these. You can write this meditation down. This is one meditation you can use.

Kye bu, the capable being, the I, is labeled. It exists. It exists in mere name. It is merely labeled on the gathering of all the six elements, the consciousness being the last one. That is the valid base. The I, the person, is merely imputed on that. That is not the I! That is not the person! But it is merely imputed because of that. Do you understand?

Now, with this analysis, we are examining what the I is. The person, the I, is not this, not this, not this. It is not consciousness. Earth is not the I, water is not the I, fire is not the I, wind is not the I, space is not the I, consciousness is not the I. All together, they are not the I. Now the opposite; the I is not the opposite. We meditate like that. Even all together they are not the I.

That is one meditation, based on Nagarjuna’s words, on Nagarjuna’s science, looking at the ultimate nature of the I, the person.

I’ll give you one more quote that gives the same flavor. The meaning is basically the same but it presents a slightly different way of meditating on emptiness. This is [from Sacred Words of Manjushri by the Fifth Dalai Lama]:

Due to the defective view of the heavy darkness of ignorance,
The way your body and mind appear to you is like a variegated, coiled rope.
From the fear of a poisonous snake due to thinking “I”
Comes the terror of the three [types of] suffering.

[This is] said by the Fifth Dalai Lama. The words are very powerful, very tasty. Due to the heavy darkness of ignorance, the defective view, we see our body and mind as like a coiled rope. The way it is coiled, with the colors mixed, we mistake it for a fearful poisonous snake, causing us fear. I don’t know what the word is. Terrible? I have a very limited English vocabulary. Terrifying? When we meet a tiger we are so scared? [Student: Frightening?] Not just frightening. Very strong. [Ven. Robina: Terror.] Maybe terror, thank you. Terror, the “terror of the three sufferings.” Terror happens due to the main cause, dark ignorance. The example is something very heavy and dark, like the nighttime sky with no moon, no stars, nothing, not only that but foggy. “Due to the defective view of the heavy darkness of ignorance.”

[Video extract: The Real “I” That Gets Angry Does Not Exist]

The example used here is believing our body and mind is like a piece of different-colored rope we see on the road curled like a snake. Nang tshül la means the way it appears to us. The body and mind are like a coiled piece of different-colored rope. That is the appearance. Because of the way it is coiled and the different colors, because it is unclear in the evening light and we don’t have clear eyes, we think it is a snake. We label it “snake” and we believe our label. Then, we get frightened. There is no snake anywhere there on any of the strands of the rope, but we label “snake” because in the evening time, at dusk, because of the different colors and the way it is coiled, it appears as a snake and then we are terrified.

Like that, this body and mind are not I. They are not I at all. I told you this yesterday or the day before yesterday. But we label “I” on that and believe that is the I, just as we label “snake” on the rope and the fear comes. It is not the I. It is the base to be labeled “I” but it is not the I.

Do you remember I mentioned M? How there is the base to be labeled “M” and “M” is what is to be labeled. Tag zhi means the base to labeled, and M is what is labeled. They are not separate but they are two different things. Remember I said that the I and the aggregates are two different things but they are not separate. We must know that, otherwise we will get caught in the hallucination, the wrong concept. We believe the body and mind are the I, then all the worries and fear arise. From that hallucination, that wrong concept, that ignorance, all the fear comes.

Then, the quote says, “From the fear of a poisonous snake due to thinking ‘I’ comes the terror of the three types of suffering.” Believing that this is the I, then the suffering of pain, the suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering arise. All the sufferings of samsara come in these three. From beginningless rebirths up to now we have been suffering. Who made us suffer? This wrong concept, ignorance, believing our body and mind are I. Due to that wrong concept, we have suffered from beginningless rebirths. And if we don’t realize emptiness in this life, we will suffer again without end. Our wrong concept, ignorance, makes us suffer in the same way that labeling “snake” on a piece of coiled rope causes us all the fear. We can’t find the snake; it’s not there. Like that, this real I is a hallucination. That is a very good meditation.

There are many different examples of how to meditate on emptiness, but some I don’t know. I received so many teachings but due to laziness I didn’t study. I’m just giving you some to meditate on. The easy ones!

That wrong concept, ignorance, makes us experience the three types of suffering: the suffering of pain, the suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering. It has made us suffer like that from beginningless rebirths [and will continue to make us suffer] if we don’t study about emptiness and realize emptiness, realize the two truths. [There is that] danger. Therefore, we need to study. We need to meditate.

I’ll stop here.

Emptiness Is Not Nonexistence

I want to tell you this. When we meditate, as I mentioned many times, focusing on the valid aggregates, when we think how at the very beginning the I is created by the mind, how the I is merely imputed, we see that the I is nothing other than that, nothing! It is not even an atom more than that. Even an atom [of real I] doesn’t exist. The I the size of an atom would be a hallucination. What the I is, is just merely labeled by the mind. But the I is not nihilism, something that totally doesn’t exist. It’s not that. The meditation is not that. It is like that, but it is not that exactly. The I exists; it exists in mere name. It is most unbelievably subtle how the I exists.

All the rest of phenomena—enlightenment and hell, samsara and nirvana, everyday happiness and problems—everything that exists is like that, unbelievably subtle. Everything is empty. Saying everything is empty does not mean nonexistence. It doesn’t mean everything is nonexistent. I’m not talking about that. I told you that already. Everything is empty but everything doesn’t not exist. It is empty of existing from its own side; it does not exist by itself. It is empty of that. It exists in mere name, merely labeled by the mind, but it does not exist by itself at all.

While the I exists, it is empty. This unifies emptiness and existence. We have to get that idea in our mind, otherwise we are lost. If we can’t put them together we are lost. We will be unsure whether our meditation is on emptiness or not. We are lost if we can’t come to this point, understanding how the two truths exist, how the two truths are related to each other, how they are unified with each other, how they are not contradictory to each other.

[When we get angry there seems to be a real I.] For example, when we have a meeting and people criticize us, then we get angry. Our ignorance creates our emotional I, which is not there, the truly existent I which is not there, the real I which is not there. We have been talking about this for so many days. That real I is not there. Our ignorance has created the real I, and then anger comes.

As we are getting angry, if we could suddenly go back to the nature of the I, how the I is merely labeled by the mind, if our mind could go inside and check how the I is merely labeled by the mind, the anger would be gone. We should concentrate on how the I is merely labeled by the mind, using the reality, instead of being distracted by ignorance, thinking “He is criticizing me, criticizing this real I,” and then getting angry. If we could meditate on the I that is merely imputed by the mind, the anger would be gone! There would be no space for anger because that view is correct. There is no reason to get angry.

With the emotional I, with the real I, there is anger. As Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned, from that we discriminate good and bad and then attachment and anger arise. Then, we create all the sufferings.

As a meditator, we are an inner scientist. Meditating on emptiness, the I is merely labeled by the mind; it is a subtle dependent arising. That understanding eliminates anger. And the same with strong attachment, with the strong grasping mind. Again, seeing how our I is merely labeled by the mind, meditating on that, attachment is gone, the strong grasping attachment that creates problems for us and for many people, is gone.

Not only that, meditating on how the I exists in mere name also eliminates ignorance. From the ignorance believing in the emotional I, the real I, by now seeing how it exists in mere name, it becomes totally the opposite. It is like putting water on the fire. It’s the remedy to ignorance. It harms the ignorance; it destroys the ignorance. The meditation on emptiness becomes the remedy to pride and all the delusions.

When we look at the mistakes of a person we have so much attachment for, we lose that attachment. We look at it as impure, with mistakes, and then we lose the attachment When we meditate on patience, anger goes away. For each different delusion there are different methods, but the meditation on emptiness cuts everything. It is the antidote to all the delusions. It is so important to meditate on emptiness, because it negates all the delusions. Please understand this. It’s so easy.

Then, I’ll mention one thing. Sorry. I was supposed to stop before. How many minutes? [Ven. Robina: Two minutes.] Two minutes! While I’m talking to you, it finishes in a few seconds.

Aryadeva said in Four Hundred Stanzas:

[136] When dependent arising is seen
Confusion will not occur.
Thus every effort has been made here
To explain precisely this subject.¹⁷

This is talking about subtle dependent arising, merely labeled by the mind. The I exists because there is a valid base, and because there is a valid base to label the I on, that is why the I exists. It is due to that valid base there is the merely labeled I, the merely imputed I.

That is subtle dependent arising. All phenomena are like that! Of course, it doesn’t appear to us like that. Everything appears to us as truly existent, but that is wrong. That is the hallucination!

When we think of subtle dependent arising, how everything is merely labeled by the mind, we realize how everything is empty, how nothing exists from its own side. That is so important. I mentioned one meditation on the merely labeled I. This quotation was found in Aryadeva’s Four Hundred Stanzas. One meditation is to always be aware of how everything is merely labeled. When we are eating, we eat merely labeled food; when we are walking, we do merely labeled walking on the merely labeled road. It applies to everything we do. It means everything is empty. It comes to that conclusion.

Then [Dhammapada says]:

Even though birth and death happen,
There is no birth and death.
For one who realizes this,
This concentration is not difficult to find.

Even though birth and death happen, there is no birth and death. For us, birth is real birth, death is real death. Birth and death are truly existent, existing from their own side, existing by nature, real [birth and real] death. In reality, there is no birth and death. That means real birth and real death, real ones that exist from there, do not exist. [Thinking they exist], we are so afraid.

Some are not afraid because of the good heart. Even though they don’t believe in reincarnation, because they have a good heart, thinking of others, they aren’t afraid. Then of course, those believing in reincarnation, even without bodhicitta but with a good heart, are not afraid of death. [They are confident they] will go to a pure land, with all the benefits, all the qualities of a pure land, so they are so happy to go there. As I mentioned, without worry or fear, when we are sure we will be born as a human being again, we are happy at death.

And the last one, the third way there are no worries is that we know we won’t get reborn in lower realms. Most people, even animals, are afraid of death. We always try to stay alive, to not die. We always put effort into not dying. When they get a little bit of time off from their jobs, people in the city go jogging for hours—in order to not die. All the time they are on bicycles, going around for hours, in order to not die. Have you got the idea?

In reality, there is no such thing as real birth and death. It’s not saying there is no birth and death, but there is no real birth and death. You understand? The verse says, “This concentration is not difficult to find.”

I just read this last verse from the [Dhammapada]:

[5:62] The fool worries, “I have sons, I have wealth,”
Indeed, when he himself is not his own,
Whence are the sons, whence is wealth?

People in the world believe they have a son, they have a child. Then, their child, their son or daughter has a child. What do you call them? Grandchildren. Wow! Grandchildren are something real. Do you understand? “I have wealth.” “I have a billion dollars, a zillion dollars.” “I have a son. I have wealth.” I have a real son; I have real wealth. The Tibetan, ji pa, doesn’t mean “child,” but we use “child” as an example. The meaning in this context is how an ordinary being who hasn’t realized emptiness completely believes the hallucination to be real. They believe every hallucination is real. Not realizing it is a hallucination, they think every hallucination is real, that it is a real “child.”

Then, just like a child, when we build a house of sand [in a sandpit] and some other child destroys that, we cry. It’s nonsense. Believing all the hallucinations to be real is like that child who believes the sand house to be real. Even the I does not have an I. There is no real I. There is no real I as we believe it to be. So, “Whence are the sons, whence is wealth?” There is no real I, so how is it possible there is a real son and real wealth? There is no real money.

[Then, Dhammapada says:]

[20:278] “All things are not-self.”
When one sees this with wisdom,
One turns away from suffering.
This is the path to purification.

If there is no I, how can there be mine? If there is no real I, there is no real mine, no real body, no real mind; it does not exist. The ignorance that believes there is a real I and real mine ceases by meditating on emptiness. When that finishes, we have no rebirth in samsara. We don’t get reborn in samsara. We are then forever free from the oceans of samsaric suffering: the suffering of pain, the suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering.

OK, finito. I think that is enough on emptiness. I just talked a little bit but there is vast study by the monks and nuns in the monasteries and nunneries. They study for many years.

[End of video extract]

[Mandala offering and dedication prayers]

OK, thank you. Please enjoy!

[Long-life prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche]

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Notes

¹⁷ See Four Hundred on the Middle Way at bodhiwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/400-Verses-Root-Text.pdf. [Return to text]