December 5, 2005

PERVASIVE COMPOUNDING SUFFERING IS SAMSARA

[Rinpoche and students chant The Foundation of All Good Qualities and the mandala offering] 

Good afternoon. Before we recite the prayer of going for refuge and generating bodhicitta, especially for those who are attending a course for the first time, I thought you might find some benefit if I gave some explanation of that.

Before mentioning that, it’s quite common that in courses such as these there are a lot of teachings. There’s a lot to learn; it’s not just listening to a few words and then closing your eyes and meditating on those few words for weeks or days. It’s not like that, just doing breathing meditations, just basically having a peaceful time watching the breath, without much learning, much wisdom, much compassion. Here, it’s not quite like that. In meditation centers within the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition, there are usually a lot of teachings, showers of teachings! Maybe not quite a hailstorm, but a lot of teachings, a lot of things to learn. But I understand that with your present state of mind, you want just to be quiet. You’ve come from the West, from a high-speed life. You’ve come from very busy cities—not siddhis but cities! Siddhis are not busy. Anyway, I’m joking.

Your life has probably been extremely busy, taking care of your family and your job. You’ve never had the chance to have a relaxed life, so of course, you would now find it very good to just sit and think of nothing, to stop thinking or stop dreaming. I’m just joking, but anyway, to stop thinking. It would be good to just stay quiet and watch the breath. You have never had that experience before; life has been extremely hectic, busy with a lot of problems. Not just busy but you’ve had a lot of problems on your mind. So here, you don’t want to think, just rest. There’s no massage on this course, just resting!

And when there’s a lot of explanation, you find it too much. You just want to be quiet. It’s good to look for peace. Yes? Of course. There’s a need for some relaxation, some peace in the mind. You have been in turmoil, with all the problems, with the busy life and all that. But that’s not enough, that’s not sufficient at all. After a very heavy massage, which means a painful one, you feel relaxed. Your muscles are relaxed. Or if you carry something very heavy and after some time you put it down and take a rest, you finally relax; you have some peace.

If that’s all that you want, that’s different. As I mentioned, if just some relaxation and peace is all you want, that’s different. But [what we study here] is to have real peace, everlasting, pure happiness, totally free forever from the suffering of pain, totally free forever from samsaric, temporary pleasures which are only in the nature of suffering, to be totally free from even this suffering, where we can never get satisfaction, no matter how much we try, making us go on and on, trying again and again. Never being satisfied is the biggest problem, the biggest suffering, in samsara. Because of following the delusions, because of following desire, we can never get satisfaction. That happiness we seek by following delusion is not pure happiness and we can never get satisfaction.

We also need to be free forever from the third type of suffering, which I mentioned yesterday, pervasive compounding suffering. As His Holiness usually explains, pervasive suffering is the aggregates, this body and mind, which are under the control of karma and delusions. That’s why its nature is suffering, why we experience suffering. It’s mentioned in the texts that these aggregates contaminated by the seed of delusions is pervasive compounding suffering.

At any time, suffering can arise or manifest from that seed of delusion. From that, at any time depression can come, loneliness can come, the compounded mental and physical sufferings can come. Even if there’s no pain, sooner or later, it’s compounded by pain.

If I talk any longer, if I keep you here any longer, soon there will be pain in your head, pain in your nose, pain in your back, in your knees! Pain will start all over soon!

We don’t know the reason for some depressions and there are some we do know the reason, such as being depressed because of relationship problems or not succeeding in what we wanted, in business or whatever. But depression can come in the evening, making our mind unhappy, and we don’t know why. In the morning, when we wake up, we don’t know why we were depressed. The seed of delusion has compounded that, the imprint left by the past karma.

It is pervasive and then it compounds suffering. This life compounds future lives’ sufferings, it produces future rebirths in the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm. This life produces a human body in the next human rebirth, or the body of a hell being, a hungry ghost and animal. It produces, it compounds all those sufferings that the aggregates experience.

This is the main suffering we should look for; this is the one we should strive to be totally free from. Then, we will be totally free from the suffering of change and the suffering of pain forever. This is what we should strive for. By actualizing the remedy, the path, karma and delusions will be totally ceased, including the seed of delusion. There will be no cause, no reason to experience suffering again. Then, it will be impossible to suffer again. This is what we should work for; this is something we have never achieved from beginningless rebirths until now.

We haven’t achieved this from beginningless time, and that’s why we have been suffering from beginningless rebirth up to now. We have been bound by karma and delusions, these obscuring, disturbing negative attitudes that arise from the negative imprint, the seed, which abides on the contaminated consciousness.

If we want to be free from suffering, we must free ourselves from pervasive compounding suffering. This is the one we need to look for. Not being free from pervasive compounding suffering means being in samsara; it’s the same thing.

The continuity of the rebirth of the aggregates means the contaminated seed. Contaminated by what? The seed of delusion, caused by karma and delusions, which conditions future samsara. In the Lamrim Chenmo, Lama Tsongkhapa’s great commentary on the lamrim, it is mentioned that pervasive compounding suffering is the part of the continuity of the contaminated aggregates that conditions the future samsara, the future rebirth. Why “part”? He specifies part rather than leaving the entire continuity because there are five paths to achieve liberation: the path of merit, the path of preparation, the right-seeing path, the path of meditation and the path of no more learning. The meditator who actualizes the path of meditation, whose aggregates don’t continue to the next life, will have ceased samsara caused by karma and delusions. They will never again take rebirth under the control of karma and delusions. So, adding the “part” excludes that but refers to the part of the continuity of the contaminated aggregates that conditions future samsara. It clarifies that the meditator who is on the path of meditation, their continuity of aggregates doesn’t go to the next life, they don’t circle. There’s no continuity or rebirth caused by karma and delusions.

The great lama, Denma Locho Rinpoche, said the continuity of the rebirth of the contaminated aggregates is what samsara is. So anyway, we need to be free from pervasive compounding suffering if we want to really achieve the peace that is free forever from suffering, not just temporary pleasure but everlasting happiness, pure happiness, real liberation. Real liberation is liberation from karma and delusions. When we have overcome our delusions, the cause of the suffering, that’s real liberation. Anything other than that might be called liberation but it’s not.

The liberation we should achieve is not just freedom from the suffering of pain—from old age, sickness, death, heat, cold, hunger, thirst, all these mental and physical sufferings, those emotional pains—and not just free from the suffering of change, but completely free even from the foundation, pervasive compounding suffering. That’s the real liberation we should look for and achieve.

But even when we have achieved that liberation free forever from every suffering of samsara, including the cause of samsara, karma and delusions, even if we have achieved that, our work is still not completed. The quality of cessation is still not completed. There are still subtle defilements, the subtle mistakes of mind. It’s like the heavy dirt has been washed from the cloth but there is still a smell. The heavy part is gone but still there’s subtle dirt or smell left. We have not yet completed the works for the self or the works for others; the realization is not completed. This only happens when we achieve full enlightenment, buddhahood, when we have completely ceased even the subtle mistakes of the mind, the subtle negative imprints left by the past concept of true existence, grasping the I, the aggregates and so forth as truly existent. We have removed the seed that causes delusion to arise because we have already achieved liberation from every suffering of samsara and its cause, karma and delusions.

When we achieve liberation, the cause of delusion—the seed that gives rise to the delusion—is completely removed. That’s the actual liberation; it makes it impossible for delusion to arise again; it makes it impossible to experience suffering again. But there is still the subtle defilement, the subtle negative imprints left by the concept of true existence.

THERE IS AN I ON THIS CUSHION BUT NOT ON THE AGGREGATES

I want to bring up something I mentioned yesterday. I want to make it clear. Last night I mentioned that our mind twenty-four hours a day continuously labels “this” and “that.” Whatever subject we are learning in university or college, what we are actually learning is labels. We are learning names, labels. The teacher is teaching us labels, introducing us to the names of phenomena. Every time we learn something, we are learning the name, the label—this phenomenon, that phenomenon, this and that. That’s why everything exists. Therefore, no phenomenon exists except in mere name, except being merely imputed by the mind. Every phenomenon exists in mere name because it’s merely imputed by the mind. Therefore, every phenomenon that exists is empty of existing from its own side. Empty of existing from its own side or by its nature, empty of independent nature, empty of independency, empty of being independent. I’m pushing little bit! I’m joking. Anyway, it’s the same.

That which is perceived by us, by our hallucinated mind, is empty of being independent or empty of independency. It’s empty of that. The way it is perceived by our hallucinated mind is empty of that, empty of true existence.

Being real in the sense of existing from its own side is the description from the point of view of our ignorance. That is the view of our ignorance, the projection of our ignorance. So, phenomena are empty of that.

Understand? We can’t find the slightest atom of that. It looks so solid and so real and as if it exists from its own side, but if we look for it, we cannot find it anywhere. The I which exists is merely imputed by the mind because there are the aggregates, which are the base. Relating to that, the mind merely imputes the “I.” This mere imputation from the mind, that exists. This I that is a mere imputation from the mind exists. But even that, we can’t find. We can find it in this world, we can find it in Nepal, we can find it in Kopan, we can find it in this gompa, we can find it on the cushion, but we cannot find it on the aggregates. We can find it on this cushion but not on the aggregates. It exists on this cushion but we can’t find it on these aggregates. This I that exists, this merely imputed I, it exists on this cushion, but we can’t find it on the aggregates, on the base to be labeled “I.” It is unfindable.

There is an I on this cushion, on this chair, on this throne. Why is there is I on this cushion? There’s no other reason! It is simply that the aggregates are there on the cushion. That’s it. That’s all. Nothing else. Just because the aggregates are there on this cushion. And so we believe there’s an I sitting on this cushion. The I is labeled by the mind and we believe it’s there sitting on the cushion. Not the slightest [atom] more than that exists; not even an atom of the I exists. The one who is sitting on the cushion, the one who is writing, listening, talking, eating, sleeping, making problems! The one who is making problems or who is benefiting ourselves and others, being useful for others, there is no I there, not even the slightest atom, other than what is merely imputed by the mind. There’s no other I, nothing that is something extra, even an atom extra, than what is merely labeled by mind. The I that is even slightly more than that is totally empty. That is the Prasangika school view.

Of the four schools of Buddhist philosophy—the Vaibhashika school, the Sautrantika school, the Cittamatra school and the Madhyamaka school with the two sub-schools, the Svatantrika and the Prasangika school—this is the second Madhyamaka school, the Prasangika. This is the object to be refuted of the Prasangika school. It is something very subtle.

Sometimes we think, “Yes, I agree. The I is labeled by mind,” in the same way our name is labeled by mind. “But it’s not possible to be merely labeled by mind. There has to be something from its own side. For the I to exist, there has to be something there from its own side. It cannot be merely labeled by mind; there should be something from its own side.” Sometimes we think like that. The philosophy of the Svatantrika school, the first Madhyamaka school, is like that. It accepts that the I is labeled by mind, but there should also be something existing from its own side. They believe that the I is labeled by mind but that it exists from its own side, it exists by nature. The Svatantrika school also believes that the I is findable on the base. It can be found on the base, which is the same as accepting it exists from its own side, it exists by nature. 

According to Madhyamaka Prasangika, if the I were findable on the base, on the aggregates, that would mean the I becomes truly existent. Because according to the Svatantrika school it is findable, it exists from its own side or it exists by nature, which to the Prasangika school means it is truly existent.

The Svatantrika school’s definition of truly existent is different [from the Prasangika’s]. Their definition of truly existent is that which [does not depend on] appearing to an undefective valid mind. By labeling it, then it exists. The I, for example, does not exist particularly from its own side. Their connotation of truly existent is that which does not depend on appearing to the undefective, valid mind and being labeled by it. Without depending on this, the I seems to exist completely from its own side, that’s truly existent. That is the definition of truly existent according to the Svatantrika school. So it’s different. Even though they talk about “truly existent,” it’s a different definition than the Prasangika school’s.

The Svatantrika school believes that the I is findable on the base of the aggregates, so it exists by nature, it exists from its own side. This means, according to the Prasangika school, that it is truly existent. Therefore, all these objects the Svatantrika school philosophers believe are, according to the Prasangika school, objects to be refuted; they are all hallucinations, all objects to be refuted. They are not the objects to be refuted for the Svatantrika school but for the Prasangika school.

Even though we might accept that the I is labeled by mind but still believe that there should be something from its own side, findable on the aggregates or existing by nature, we have not reached the Prasangika school’s view of emptiness, which is that it is totally empty from there, from where it appears. This something from its own side is totally nonexistent. That’s the right view. That’s the Madhyamika Prasangika school’s view of emptiness. If we realize this, that’s what pleases all the buddhas.

So, in reality, even though the previous schools—the Vaibhashika school, the Sautrantika school, the Cittamatra school and the Madhyamaka Svatantrika school—even though they talk about emptiness from their point of view, there is only one emptiness. That is the emptiness explained by the Prasangika school. Although there are different presentations, in reality it’s just one, the Prasangika school view of emptiness.

To clarify just a little bit: the very root of samsara is ignorance. I mentioned some parts of this yesterday, but to clarify once more, the very root of samsara, where all our sufferings, all our problems come from, is ignorance.

There is the base, the aggregates, which are also merely imputed on the collections of the five aggregates of form, feeling, cognition, compounding aggregates and consciousness. In Tibetan there is pung po and dag shi. Pung po refers to the aggregates and dag shi is the base to be labeled. The collection of the five aggregates exist because they are merely imputed. On that label “aggregates,” which is imputed on the collection of the five, the mind which sees the aggregates, the base, makes up the label “I.” It merely imputes “I.”

The next moment, when it appears back, it should appear back as merely labeled by the mind, which is what it is. It should appear back to us as a mere imputation. But it doesn’t appear in that way. It doesn’t appear back to our mind as it is, as merely imputed, in as a mere imputation, merely imputed by mind. It doesn’t appear to us that way. In the first moment, the mind sees the aggregates and merely imputes “I,” and in the next moment [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] it appears back as something totally different, as a total hallucination, a false I, an I not merely labeled by the mind. The I that appears as not merely labeled by the mind is the Prasangika school’s object to be refuted.

Then, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] although the previous thought imputed the I, in the next moment, the continuity of that same thought holds on to that I as not merely imputed but as true, apprehending it as completely true. It’s the same continuity of thought. The next moment of the same continuity of that thought holds on to the I as true. The way the I appears to us is not merely labeled by mind.

So, it is something very subtle. The I that is not just merely labeled by mind but is something slightly more than that, something extra, that is extremely subtle. The continuity of the same thought that labeled the I before, now apprehends it as true. That concept is ignorance. Why? Because there’s no such I. The I that we believe, apprehended by that concept, the I that is not merely labeled by the mind but is something extra, something slightly more than that—there’s no such thing. This wrong concept is ignorance.

What is the I? It is merely imputed by mind. Therefore, it is empty of existing from its own side. While the I exists in mere name, imputed by mind, it is empty of something extra than what is merely imputed, which means existing from its own side. The I is empty of that. This is the very nature of the I, but the mind cannot see that. It is ignorant, believing it exists from its own side, it is something extra than what is merely imputed by mind. 

That wrong concept alone is the root of samsara; it is the very root of all the sufferings. As I mentioned yesterday, it’s where all problems come from: war, famine, disease and all those tortures, where many millions of people get tortured and killed, which has happened many times in this world. These all came from this. I also mentioned all the dangers of fire, water, air, earthquakes—all the same. Then, rebirth, old age, sicknesses, death—all the same. The unbelievable hell of relationship problems, where we are not born in hell but it’s like living in hell, all the unbelievable suffering where we cannot eat, we cannot sleep, we cannot work properly, we want to take so many tablets, and then life becomes very expensive, as I mentioned the other night! Here today it’s ignorance; the one yesterday was attachment!

Because of that, we really suffer for many years; there are so many years of pain in our heart. We can’t let go of that hurt. There is no happiness at all. Wherever we go, even to the mountains, we still have problems. Even if we go the countryside, to Tahiti or Goa, wherever. If we live at home, if we work in an office, even if we go to Mount Everest or to the moon, spending many millions of dollars to go to the moon, it’s all the same—we still have problems there. The hurt is there; the pain is there. This all comes from that concept, ignorance.

THE ROOT OF SAMSARA ACCORDING TO THE FOUR SCHOOLS

Maybe I’ll mention this and then we’ll have a break.

When the I appears back to us not merely labeled by mind, within that, there are also other very gross hallucinations. The Vaibhashika school has eighteen schools, and for one of the schools the root of samsara is that the I, which is impermanent in nature, appears permanent, and we hold on to that. That concept of permanence is a wrong concept. Then the I exists alone without depending on parts. We hold that concept as true. Then, the I appears to be independent, existing with its own freedom; it appears like this and we hold on to that as true. According to this part of the Vaibhashika school, this wrong concept is the root of samsara, the root of suffering, but the reality is that, although this is a wrong concept, it is not the root of samsara.

The I also appears to be self-sufficient, without depending on the collection of the aggregates and their continuity. The I appears self-sufficient, like a king or president or whoever, without depending on the population. But if there were no population, if nobody was there, how could that person become the president or king? So, like that, without depending on the population, it exists, self-sufficiently. When the I appears back to us in this way, this is also a wrong view. The emptiness of this is the selflessness of the person according to the Vaibhashika school, the Sautrantika school, the Cittamatra school and even the Madhyamaka Svatantrika school.

But that I appearing as self-sufficient and us believing that to be true, that concept is still not the root of samsara. Even though it is believed to be the root of samsara by the previous schools, from the Prasangika school’s point of view, it is not the root of samsara. From the Prasangika school’s view and in reality it is not the root of samsara.

The object to be refuted—the hallucination—according to the Svatantrika school is the I that appears without being labeled by the undefective valid mind, that it appears to exist from its own side. This hallucination is also there. According to them, holding on to that as true is the root of samsara. It might be holding on to the I as self-sufficient.

This concept of the I particularly existing from its own side without appearing to the undefective mind labeling it and the mind holding on to this, this concept is also not the root of samsara [according to the Prasangika].

The root of samsara is only what I mentioned before, when the I appears back after the mere imputation as something extra, something slightly more than that, as existing from its own side. The moment [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] the continuity of the previous mind that has labeled the I holds on to it as true, holds on to that very subtle object, that ignorance is the root of samsara. This is the Madhyamaka Prasangika school’s root of samsara. This is the unmistaken one. 

From that, all those other disturbing thoughts, such as ignorance, anger and attachment arise, which motivate karma, and from those arise the true cause of suffering and all the true sufferings: all the oceans of sufferings of the hell realm, the oceans of sufferings of the hungry ghosts, the oceans of sufferings of the animals, the oceans of sufferings of the human beings, the oceans of sufferings of the sura and asura realms, and so on. This all comes from there.

From this, we should get some slight idea which suffering we should be liberated from, what we should look for and what is the root we need to cut, to eliminate. We should get some small idea of that. I think that realizing emptiness is the heart of all Buddhadharma, all 84,000 teachings of the Buddha, the graduated path to enlightenment, the lamrim.

It can be said that 84,000 teachings are contained in the Tripitaka, the three baskets of teachings, that they are all contained in the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment, and the heart of all that is the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment: renunciation, bodhicitta and right view. Here, emptiness is our daily life’s practice. We can see how urgent it is to learn about emptiness, to meditate on it and to realize it.

THE OBJECT OF REFUTATION FOR THE CITTAMATRA SCHOOL

For all those successes I mentioned last night, I would like to recite the Praises to Twenty-One Taras once.

[Rinpoche and the students recite the praises]

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me and others, may I quickly achieve Tara’s enlightenment, and lead all the sentient beings to Tara’s enlightenment.”

One thing I left out before when I was talking about how the imputed I appears back to us. Maybe this can be called the Cittamatra school’s object to be refuted. The Cittamatra school, the Mind Only school, believe that there are not only six consciousnesses, but seven or eight. The eighth consciousness is called the afflictive mental consciousness and the seventh consciousness is called the mind-basis-of-all, meaning it is the base for all phenomena in samsara and nirvana.

There is an imprint of the substance left on the continuity of that consciousness, and that substance, that imprint, manifests into the knowing phenomenon perceiving the object, she pa, that which perceives an object, like the eye sense perceiving blue is the knowing phenomena. The blue, the substance, the imprint left on that seventh consciousness that manifests out is the knowing phenomena. I wouldn’t say “knower” because that means the person. I have seen this translated as “knower,” but that would mean the person, like a writer or a driver. Here I would call it the “knowing phenomenon.” The eye sense that perceives blue, that substance, the imprint left on the seventh consciousness manifests out in two ways: one is the object blue, one is the subject of the eye sense. Not the capital I, not this I. I’ll mentioned this because there may be the danger of confusion.

I first went to Mexico many years ago right after His Holiness had first been there. I was invited to introduce His Holiness, but I thought it was better that Geshe Sopa Rinpoche introduced him. I came after his Holiness left. I was invited by a professor who had come to Kopan in the early times. I think he was also one of the people who invited His Holiness and organized the trip.

I did a few days’ teaching in a Japanese temple, maybe two or three days, I’m not sure. Anyway, an old couple were translating for me, and I was talking about the I, the self I, but it seems they translated all the time as this eye. I found out the next day that they translated the I as the “eye.” A girl who had come from Dharamsala for a time was more familiar with the teachings and so she corrected the old couple who were translating. So, it wasn’t this eye sense! Anyway, I just remembered as we were talking about this eye.

So, that’s how phenomena exist according to the Cittamatra school. No phenomenon exists without depending on the substance, the imprint left on the seventh consciousness manifesting from that, experiencing out from that.

So their object to be refuted is this hallucination, this wrong view, the I that exists without depending on the substance left on the seventh consciousness having projected that. Without depending on that, the I appears to completely exist from its own side. 

Holding on to that as true is not the root of samsara. When I was talking about the four schools, I left that out before.

This is just to clarify that there are so many different levels of wrong concepts that we have, but they are not the root of samsara. That’s what I was trying to say. Only this very last one, this very subtle one, this wrong concept, this ignorance, according to the Prasangika school, is the root of samsara.

It can be helpful if you concentrate on this. Then, you can see how everything is a hallucination. Still, this is a commentary on that ignorance that is the root of samsara that I left out before.

TRUE EXISTENCE IS DECORATED ON TO THE MERELY LABELED I

The mind sees the aggregates and labels and merely imputes the “I.” The moment this happens, what manifests is the negative imprint left on the mental continuum by past ignorance that holds the I as truly existing. From the I being merely imputed by the mind, the moment after that [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] the hallucination, the real, truly existent I is projected there due to the imprints left by the past wrong concept of holding the I as truly existent. Right after the mere imputation, the I appears as real, as existing from its own side, due to that negative imprint. The previous moment of the continuity of that thought apprehending the object merely imputed the I and then, this moment apprehends it as true, believes it to be true. It’s totally a joke! It’s nonsense!

This concept becomes the root of all our problems: the suffering of rebirth, old age, sickness and death. All the hells are a creation of that. It is the creator of the whole of suffering, the producer. Maybe the movie producer? Ignorance is the producer of our samsara movie! But whether it’s a good producer or a bad producer, I’m not sure.

Now you get the idea of what made everything like this. All phenomena starting from the I, the merely imputed I, and the aggregates, the merely imputed aggregates—the merely imputed form, feeling, cognition, consciousness, compounding aggregates—everything about the mind, the fifty-one mental factors, the six consciousnesses, all these are merely imputed. Then the body and all the parts of the body that have names, all the limbs, every piece of the body down to the atoms and the subatomic particles. And then consciousness, where we don’t talk about atoms, but the continuity of the consciousness.

According to Prasangika, I think, there is a continuity of consciousness, from life-to-life, from past lives to this life to future lives and within the continuity of consciousness of this life, there is the continuity of consciousness of however many years, the continuity of consciousness of one year, of all the months, of the weeks and days, the continuity of consciousness of the hours, minutes and seconds and of the split seconds.

Within the four different schools, there are different ways of discriminating the parts of the continuity, and with the Prasangika school, it goes down to the seconds and the split seconds. These are all merely imputed by the mind. Everything is, from the merely imputed mind, the merely imputed I, everything down to the split seconds of consciousness and the subatomic particles. Everything is a mere imputation.

But everything, like the I, appears to be real due to the negative imprints left by the concept of ignorance projecting, decorating true existence on to it, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] making it real to us, to our ignorance, to the hallucinating mind. Everything that is a mere imputation is made to seem real. True existence is projected from this negative imprint, like a roll of film you put in a movie projector which then projects the image onto a movie screen.

It’s like when we wear blue glasses, we see snow mountains and everything that’s white we see as blue, or if we wear red glasses we see everything as red, not white. These negative imprints make everything real: these pillars, ceilings, lights, flowers, floor, carpet, scarf, our book, our pen, our hand, our feet, our nose—everything is made real, existing from its own side. When we look at the sky, we see a real sky, existing from its own side; we make it real. Trees appear real from their own side. All these are projections, hallucinations. When we walk on a hard road, it appears hard from its own side.

That’s the object to be refuted, gag cha in Tibetan. Again, we label the road, but make it real. When we eat food, the real I eats real food, there is real eating. All these are mere imputations but this negative imprint projects a reality, making everything real. When we go shopping, when we go into a department store or supermarket, there is a real shopkeeper, a real building, real food, real vegetables, sixty or seventy choices of real cheese! All those fungi things? I’m not sure; I got mixed up. What are fungi? Hairs growing from the cheese? Fungi!

The example I normally use is the real I giving real money to the real shopkeeper. All these are mere imputations, but the negative imprints make everything truly existent, so we get real goods, real clothing, real makeup. When we go into a department store with all these billions of goods, when we go into the clothing part, there is all that truly existent clothing, all those different jeans, coats and billions of shoes, all those truly existent shoes. Nowadays, they make shoes very long, with the bottom part very pointy! Probably you need quite a lot of practice to walk. When we go into a makeup shop, there is all that truly existent makeup in all those truly existent bottles. Everything is truly existent, everything is real. The whole thing is a total hallucination, a projection, the negative imprint decorating the mere imputation, which exists but is made real like this.

In reality, there’s no such thing as the real I, the real buyer, the real money, the real shopkeeper. There’s no such thing as the real ice cream we get. We believe it but there’s no such thing! The mere imputation is there but the real thing, the thing we very heavily believe to be real—this real I giving this real money to this real shopkeeper to get this real ice cream—in reality there’s no such thing; it’s all empty. The real I driving the real car, doing the real driving on the real road, real in the sense of existing from its own side, is projected by the negative imprint. There’s no such thing. That car is empty, that road is empty, that driver is empty; everything is empty. Then, this real I is caught by real police and put in a real prison. It’s all empty! It’s projected by these negative imprints that make everything real. In reality, there’s no such thing. It’s all empty.

It’s the same with birth and death. Birth, old age, sickness, death are merely imputations, but made real by the past negative imprints, real birth, real old age, real sicknesses, real death. When we believe in real death, then we become afraid. When we believe that the real death, which is mere imputation, exists from its own side, when we make it real, we are afraid. In reality, there’s no such thing. It’s all empty. It’s the same with the merely imputed mother, the merely imputed father, the merely imputed children, the merely imputed house, the merely imputed possessions, the merely imputed wife, the merely imputed husband.

This negative imprint left by the past concept of true existence makes everything real; it projects this true existence. In reality, in essence, it’s all empty. This is how we should meditate.

PRACTICING THE MINDFULNESS OF EMPTINESS IN DAILY LIFE

This is how you should practice mindfulness in daily life, while you are driving a car, while you are shopping, and so forth. You should plan when you leave home to go shopping to use this shopping time for lamrim practice. Which one? Here, you can focus on right view, emptiness. Plan to use the shopping as a Dharma practice, a lamrim practice, right view, to cut the root of samsara, that which ceases the defilements, making you achieve liberation and enlightenment. You should plan from your bed, from your house, how you are going to meditate. Then, while you are shopping, while you are in the supermarket or the department store, practice mindfulness.

While you are shopping, meditate that it is like watching TV, like watching a movie, seeing all the things around you as like watching TV or a movie, then it becomes exactly like that. It’s the best TV, the least expensive, because you don’t have to pay for it! It doesn’t rely on a TV station, just the station inside you, the station in your mind!

Even in your room, think like that. Meditate like this. As you watch your scenery, consider what the reality is, how it’s empty. There’s no such thing. This is how the omniscient mind sees the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. There’s no such thing. Watch the view of your hallucinated mind, the movie of your hallucinated mind, projected by your ignorance. Watch that. Watch how ignorance makes everything real, existing from its own side. When you walk somewhere, you’re walking on the hallucination. When you are eating, you’re eating the hallucination. You are wearing the hallucination dress. Everything is like that.

This is another method of practicing patience. When somebody is angry with you, provokes you, disturbs you, if you meditate like this, what looked real, the real anger, the real bad words, yourself, the other person, everything you believed to be real, it’s all projection of your own negative imprint left by ignorance. Just watch. Just watch the scenery; and consider what is reality, There’s no such thing; it’s all empty.

It’s very good to use emptiness to practice patience. There are six techniques of the Kadampa master. I don’t know which Kadampa, but one of them, the last method is using emptiness, looking at yourself and the other person as empty, and then anger will not arise.

When somebody blames you or you have bad news in the newspaper, when many people say bad things about you, see it like that. If you believed everything that appears to be real, holding to be true everything created by your ignorance, you would want to commit suicide, you wouldn’t be able to stand it. But when you look at all this that appears as real—all these people complaining, all the bad news or whatever—as empty, it cools the mind; it becomes medicine for peace.

Maybe I’ll stop here.

I remember one thing that I forgot to mention yesterday. I think it’s very important. Recently His Holiness was at Stanford University giving a talk, a teaching. There was a program for one or two weeks, at least one week, with different programs of one- or two-day teachings, I can’t remember. In one of the teachings, there was some very practical advice. 

One thing was that different people see other people in different ways; nobody sees somebody in the same way when they look at the person. That shows the person doesn’t exist from their own side, they are not truly existent. What each person sees is not truly existent—if they were, then they should appear the same to everybody. They should appear true, in the sense of real, truly existent, and they should appear the same to everybody, but they don’t appear that way. Therefore, they are a dependent arising. Therefore, they are empty of independence, empty of true existence.

I don’t remember whether His Holiness mentioned this at the beginning, in the middle or at the end. His Holiness strongly emphasized that we shouldn’t rush; we shouldn’t immediately hold onto things, believing in them without analyzing, without checking. It’s a very vast subject. It can be related to many things. We mustn’t hold on to things, believing in them immediately without analyzing, without checking first.

His Holiness said we shouldn’t act like animals. Animals don’t check; whatever appears to them, they believe immediately. They don’t check the object to see whether it’s true or not, whether it exists or not. What appears, they believe. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] They immediately hold on to that. So, His Holiness said, “Don’t act like dogs. Don’t act like animals, without analyzing, just immediately believing.” That is very good advice, because when we don’t analyze an object, anger, attachment and all these emotional problems come. Life becomes gloomy with problems.

I thought to mention that. His Holiness used this, saying how this is how animals act. We must not act like an animal; we must always check the object. We should not immediately believe without analyzing the object. I think this is a very big subject. It could be related to many things. In the world, so many problems arise because of not analyzing, just immediately believing what we see.

THE CAUSAL AND RESULTANT REFUGE IN THE REFUGE PRAYER

I’ll go over this prayer; then we’ll stop:

I take refuge until I am enlightened
In the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly.

“I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha” shows the causal refuge. “Until I am enlightened” shows the resultant refuge. When we say, “I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,” we are practicing the causal refuge, and when we say, “Until I am enlightened,” we are practicing the resultant refuge. 

We achieve the resultant refuge by actualizing the true path, the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, and achieving the cessation of the suffering, the absolute Dharma. By actualizing the Dharma within ourselves or, in other words, our mind becoming the Dharma, at that time we become the absolute Sangha. Then, by depending on actualizing the Dharma, we become the Buddha. When the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness is supported by bodhicitta, we cease even the subtle defilements, and we become the Buddha.

Why? Because the purpose of our life is not just to achieve happiness for ourselves, not just to achieve liberation for ourselves. Even that is not the real meaning of our life, the real purpose of our life. The purpose of our life is to benefit others. Benefiting others means causing them happiness in this life. A more important benefit to others is causing the happiness of all the coming future lives. This life is a very short one, so the second one is a much more important service. Then the third way we can benefit others is to liberate all sentient beings from all samsaric suffering, karma and delusions. Then, even more important than that, is to bring them to full enlightenment by ceasing the subtle defilements. That is the highest benefit we can offer sentient beings.

To do this perfectly without even the slightest mistake, first we ourselves must completely developing the path, the Dharma, within ourselves, which is the remedy to completely cease all the mistakes of the mind, both gross and subtle, as well as all the subtle defilements, becoming completely pure. When we complete all the realizations, we become omniscient. We have perfected our mind in compassion for all the numberless sentient beings: each and every single hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human being, sura, asura and intermediate state being. We have perfected all the power to reveal any method that each and every single sentient being needs, that fits them. With an omniscient mind we know every single sentient being’s mind, their character, the mistakes of their karma, their level of intelligence—every single detail. We can read everyone’s mind and be able to see every single method that exactly fits them, that is exactly useful for that level of mind.

To be able to do perfect work for sentient beings without the slightest mistake becomes the foundation; it becomes the preliminary motivation for the mind to develop, allowing us to progress to higher and higher methods.

Working for others is the real purpose of our life, freeing them from all the sufferings and bringing them to enlightenment. That’s why we need to become a buddha. For that, we need to actualize the Dharma and become a Sangha.

This is the resultant refuge. In order to achieve the resultant refuge, we have to rely upon the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha possessed by others’ minds. It’s like becoming a fully qualified doctor—if we want to become the best, fully qualified doctor, we have to rely on very expert doctors, studying with the experts, those with the best qualities, learning from them so we too can become expert. Similarly, in order to actualize the resultant refuge we have to rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha possessed by others’ minds. That’s the causal refuge.

THE THREE CAUSES OF REFUGE

Refuge should be done with three causes. We are practicing Mahayana, following all the practices of the Mahayana teachings, engaging in the Mahayana teachings, therefore, to the Hinayana’s two causes of refuge, we need to add a third. In the Hinayana, we take refuge by having the useful fear of our own samsara, how it is in the nature of suffering, and we have faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, that they have the qualities and power to liberate us from samsara. With those two causes, we then totally rely upon the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha with our whole heart. That mental factor is refuge.

With the Mahayana way of taking refuge, besides those two causes, having the useful fear of our own samsara, seeing how our own samsara is in the nature of suffering, this is the same. On top of that, we develop compassion for all other sentient beings. Just as we feel unbearable aversion to our own samsara, having a useful fear to our own suffering of samsara, this is the same. We can say, “Samsara itself is in the nature of suffering,” which is same for us and all sentient beings. Or we can say, “The suffering of samsara.” Either way. Then, whenever we look at other beings, we feel how they are in samsara and how their suffering is unbearable. Then compassion arises, wishing them to be free from suffering.

Of course, we can say “great compassion,” which means besides wanting them to be free from suffering, to be liberated, we ourselves want to free them from suffering, to liberate them. With these three causes—aversion to suffering, faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and compassion— we totally rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Having that mental factor is the Mahayana refuge.

We can think like this. When we generate the useful fear of our own samsara and compassion for others, we determine to not only be liberated ourselves from the suffering of samsara we have been experiencing from beginningless rebirths, but also to liberate the numberless sentient beings, not only from the suffering of pain and the suffering of change, but also from pervasive compounding suffering, from all the sufferings. Then we see that the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha have all the qualities.

After we have transformed our mind into this refuge, we do the prayer. Then, what we say and how we feel are harmonious, it’s not just taking refuge from the lips. So, the first two lines of the refuge prayer is, “I take refuge until I am enlightened in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.”

The next two lines are:

By my merit of generosity and so forth,
May I become a buddha in order to benefit all transmigratory beings.

There are here two types of merit: the merit of virtue and the merit of transcendental wisdom. In Tibetan, the merit of transcendental wisdom is called yeshe kyi tsog. Tsog translates as “collection” but I don’t think it’s always the case of collection. Tsog sa ko means to “collect merit,” so with this translation we would “collect a collection.”

When we think of the merit of virtue and merit of transcendental wisdom, if we think of the three-time merits collected by us and by all others, we put everybody’s merit together, which makes it very powerful. It’s like when we only have one dollar to donate but there are millions of peoples also donating one dollar, it becomes millions of dollars, a huge fund that allows us to do a big project. It’s very powerful.

Then, “in order to benefit all transmigratory beings”. Dro wa [or dro la] here is translated as “transmigratory beings.” It has two meanings: one is that, “transmigratory beings,” and the other is “one who is going,” which means going anywhere, and in this context, going throughout the six realms. You have already studied the twelve dependent related limbs. Having gone through that meditation, “transmigratory being” is easy to understand.

There are six realms of sentient beings and they migrate from one realm to another, completely overwhelmed, under the control of karma and delusions. They have no freedom at all, migrating to the hell realm, the hungry ghost realm, the animal realm, the human realm, the sura realm and the asura realm, one after another. One after another, continuously, and they have to experience all the sufferings of each realm again and again and again, from time without beginning. When we think about this, there is no choice; compassion has to arise.

When we think of the meaning of transmigratory being, compassion has to arise, because we see how they are suffering. I mentioned before, it is due to ignorance. So, it is very important that we have the understanding of ignorance. So here you see it’s so important. Under the control of ignorance, sentient beings are suffering. They are suffering so much. This world is suffering so much due to ignorance, following this concept of true existence, this root, ignorance. There are many other types of ignorance: not knowing karma, not knowing Dharma and so forth.

When we see how much sentient beings are suffering, how this world is suffering, even just human beings, without thinking about animals in this world, we come to know how our Dharma practice is so important. Practicing Dharma is so essential. That’s the ultimate answer to help others. To help to liberate sentient beings, to actualize the lamrim, the stages of the path to enlightenment. It becomes so important for us to liberate others.

You have gone through all the sufferings already, each realm’s suffering: the hell beings’ suffering, the hungry ghosts’ suffering, the animals’ suffering, the human beings’ suffering, the devas, the suras and asuras’ suffering, the suffering of the form and formless realms and pervasive compounding suffering, which is the main one. “In order to benefit” means to liberate these transmigrators from the oceans of each realm’s suffering and its cause, karma and delusions, and bring them to full enlightenment.

“Transmigratory being” is one translation of dro wa. The other is “one who is going.” That refers to how sentient beings, immediately after birth, are constantly running non-stop, without stopping for even a second, going toward death. That’s the meaning of “one who is going.” This also causes compassion to arise. Thinking on that, we determine we must achieve full enlightenment. “May I become a buddha in order to benefit all transmigratory beings.” So, make the strong determination in your heart and dedicate like that.

I didn’t remember the name until today. At Sera Je Monastery, there was this great lama, Je Tukanpa, who always emphasized bodhicitta whenever he began teaching. According to his instruction, we should always see the I who is seeking enlightenment, the action of seeking enlightenment, and the sentient beings we are going to achieve enlightenment for, that all these are empty of true existence. We should look at everything as empty. When we do that, even from the very beginning when we do these four lines, we are already practicing the lamrim within that: refuge is there, renunciation is there, bodhicitta is there, the right view of emptiness is there—the three principal aspects of the path are there already as we meditate.

This is very important. Of course, we should not just say the words. I want to emphasize it is very important, when we can, to first transform the mind into this refuge and then say the prayer. Even while we are saying this, wishing to achieve bodhicitta to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, if we put our palms together, with the prayer, “I take refuge until I am enlightened in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,” we collect limitless skies of merit. We collect much greater merit than the universe filled with the seven precious jewels, gold, diamonds, everything. How many universes? Equaling the number of atoms of the Pacific Ocean, but these sand grains or water atoms, whatever, are something extremely fine, not ordinary sand that we see, but something very subtle. So anyway, how many universes? Equaling the number of atoms of the Pacific Ocean. That many filled with the seven precious jewels and offered to the buddhas. But here, by generating bodhicitta, we collect much more merit. This is explained in the Sutra of the Ten Bhumis.

So anyway, we’ll do this three times and then stop.

[Rinpoche and the students chant the refuge prayer]

Emptiness.

In emptiness, there’s no I, there’s no enlightenment, there are no sentient beings. In emptiness there’s no I, there’s no seeking, there’s no enlightenment, there are no sentient beings.

[Rinpoche and the students chant the refuge prayer]

Emptiness.

Now, the last one.

[Rinpoche and the students chant the refuge prayer]

Look at it as empty.

DEDICATION

So now dedicate the merits.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, may bodhicitta be generated in my heart, in the hearts of my family members and in the hearts of all of us here, in the hearts of all the students, benefactors, in the hearts of all the supporters and all those who sacrifice their lives for the organization, doing service for sentient beings and for the teachings of the Buddha through this organization.” Then think, “May it also be generated in the hearts of all the sentient beings.”

[Rinpoche and the students recite prayers]

Then, “May bodhicitta be generated especially in the hearts of everyone in this world.”

[Rinpoche and the students recite prayers]

“Especially, may bodhicitta be generated in the hearts of all the leaders of the world.” If a leader has a bodhicitta realization, the millions of people in that country will have so much peace and happiness. They are guided in the correct way. “May bodhicitta to be generated in the hearts especially of all the terrorists, all those people who have vicious thoughts to harm others, without delay even a second.”

[Rinpoche and the students recite prayers]

We have this unbelievable life, like a dream, with the incredible opportunity in this life. Not only have we received a perfect human body, but we have met the Buddhadharma, the Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism, which is the complete Buddhadharma with nothing missing. We are able to learn the whole path to enlightenment and to practice, to actualize to benefit all sentient beings, to liberate them from all the oceans of suffering of samsara and bring them to enlightenment. All this is solely by the kindness of His Holiness Dalai Lama, the Compassion Buddha, Chenrezig.

Dedicate the merits for His Holiness to have a stable life and for all his holy wishes to succeed immediately.

[Rinpoche and the students recite prayers]

Then, dedicate the merits for the wishes of Lama, who was kinder than all the three-time buddhas, to succeed immediately. And for Lama Ösel Rinpoche to have a long life, show the same qualities as Lama Tsongkhapa and offer limitless skies of benefit to sentient beings and the teachings of Buddha.

[Rinpoche and the students recite prayers]

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, may all father and mother sentient beings have happiness May the three lower realms be empty forever. May all the bodhisattvas’ prayers succeed immediately. May I be able to cause all this to happen by myself alone.

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me and collected by others, may I be able to offer limitless skies of benefit to sentient beings and the teachings of buddha, like Lama Tsongkhapa, by having the same qualities within me as Lama Tsongkhapa has, from now on in all the lifetimes, in every second to be like that.

“Due to the three-time merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by all the buddhas, may any sentient being who sees me, touches me, remembers me, thinks about me, talks to me, who praises, who criticizes, harms or helps, whatever they do to me, just by that may it be the cause for those sentient beings’ negative karma to get immediately purified; may they never ever get reborn in the lower realms and may they generate faith in refuge and karma, actualize bodhicitta and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.” Think this is not only human beings, but also every animal, any sentient being, spirits or anyone. You should relate this to yourself: “Anyone who sees me, touches me, just by seeing me, touching me, remembering me, thinking about me, talking about me, harming me, who criticizes or praises me, who harms or helps, whatever they do, even those who make fun of me, those who dream of me, who see me in pictures, may it only become healing; may it only become purification, only bringing peace and happiness, especially enlightenment to them.” 

Then, please dedicate the merits to receive all the needs and complete all the funding for the five-hundred-foot Maitreya statue to be constructed as quickly as possible, for it to completely abide in this world until Maitreya Buddha comes, and for it to be most beneficial for all sentient beings. May it be the cause to collect extensive merit for sentient beings and purify all their defilements, and especially to actualize bodhicitta in everyone’s heart and then bring perfect peace and happiness in this world and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible. As well as that, dedicate for all the rest of the projects that I mentioned yesterday, serving the Sangha and making offerings to the monasteries and nunneries in different parts of the world, to the social services in different parts of the world, to building various holy objects in different parts of the world, which is the quickest way to purify and cause sentient beings to collect merit and bring them to enlightenment. And also dedicate for all the centers, to help to provide funds for all their projects, to be most beneficial to sentient beings, to cause them to generate faith in karma and refuge and bodhicitta, and especially Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, in the heart of all sentient beings, and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible.

“Due to the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, which exist but do not exist from their own side, which are totally empty, may the I, who exists but does not exist from its own side, who is totally empty, lead all the sentient beings, who exist but who do not exist from their own side, to achieve Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but doesn’t exist from its own side, which is empty, by myself alone, who exists but who does not exist from its own side, who is totally empty.

“I dedicate all the merits in the same way as the three-time buddhas. I dedicate all the merits to be able to follow all the holy excellent deeds of the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjugosha as they realized, those eight bodhisattvas. I dedicate all the merits in the same way as the three-time buddhas dedicate their merits. 

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me, collected by others, may the general teachings of the Buddha, particularly Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, flourish forever in this world, and spread in all the ten directions by completely actualizing within my heart and the hearts of my family members, in the hearts of all of us, in the hearts of all the students, benefactors, supporters and all those who give up their lives to the organization, to actualize in all their hearts and in the hearts of everyone in this world.”

So good night.

THE MINDFULNESS OF EMPTINESS WHILE SITTING AND AT BREAKTIME

What I explained before is very good to do when you are in a retreat. This is how to retreat using the emptiness meditation, while doing the sitting meditation, but it is also very important during breaktime—not breaktime from the Dharma but breaktime from the sitting meditation—while eating, walking, and so forth. This mindfulness meditation on emptiness is what I explained before.

By either looking at the subtle dependent arising, the mere imputation, or by looking at it as a hallucination, seeing that which is hallucination as a hallucination, just that mindfulness on the hallucination, which in your heart means it is always empty. It comes to the same point.

The other one is looking at it as a hallucination and thinking that it’s empty, as I mentioned before. You can do the mindfulness meditation, doing those different analytical meditations, by sitting or while you are doing something active, walking or doing things, at the same time doing what I explained before, the mindfulness on the right view. Then, it becomes a very good retreat, very rich, very powerful to destroy the delusions. Even if you have doubts, “Maybe this is empty, maybe it’s a dependent arising,” so even that doubt breaks your samsara in pieces. [Rinpoche snap his fingers] The texts mention that.

Each time you meditate on emptiness like that, it prepares you to actually realize emptiness quickly. And also at that time what you are doing becomes the antidote to the root of samsara, ignorance. It harms ignorance and makes you achieve liberation, and then, supported by bodhicitta, also enlightenment.

Tomorrow, maybe we will do the mindfulness on bodhicitta, which is similar to this, but especially during breaktime, when you’re dealing with people, while you’re active, keep in mind bodhicitta. Bodhicitta is the best retreat. Not only sitting in a session, but also when you wake up, when you get up! Wake up or get up? For some people it can be wake up. Then, banish the self-cherishing thought. When you’re going around or eating or talking with people, or whatever, don’t allow the self-cherishing thought. Not like that. Even the breaktime should be with bodhicitta.

Anyway, I’ll mention that tomorrow.

I was thinking to do the lung of some of the preliminary practices. You need some of the lungs, the oral transmissions of the Heart Sutra, and Dorje Khadro. Those are different, very powerful practices of purification. And maybe I’ll do the oral transmission of the Thirty-five Buddhas prayers, so everyone can get it. Then, there will be no difficulties or if you want to practice but you need the lung and you can’t get it or something. If I do those different practices in public like this, it helps everybody, because if you don’t do it now, later you will have to do it anyway. Those practices are very worthwhile to do.

I think that’s all. Thank you very much.