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Chapter Four: Practicing in Daily Life

There are two motivations for doing an action, one being the motivation at the time of the action (timely motivation), the other being the motivation before doing it (causal motivation). If you cultivate bodhicitta in the morning, it becomes the causal motivation for all the activities you do from then on during that day. By training your mind with effort in bodhicitta each day, it will gradually transform into the thought to benefit others, and one day naturally, without any effort, you will be able to live your life with bodhicitta arising spontaneously. All your daily life actions will be transformed into virtue. This was the reason for Kedrubje’s praise of his guru, Lama Tsong Khapa, “Even your breathing in and out benefits all sentient beings.”

In the same way that you generate bodhicitta in the morning, you can also make a strong determination to meditate on emptiness. When you wake up, you can think, “Everything, including I, action, object, and all other phenomena from form until enlightenment—hell, liberation, samsara, happiness, problems, virtue and non-virtue, and so forth—appear to the mind as real, from there. But they do not exist in the way that they appear.” These phenomena appear to your mind as being there on the base. They are all decorated by the imprint of ignorance, fabricated, or projected, by your mind. How? Because of negative imprints left on your mental continuum by the past concept of inherent existence, all these things appear inherently existent. It’s like what happens to a person whose mind is affected by disease or drugs or who is wearing blue glasses. Someone whose mind is unaffected realizes that the snow mountain is white; one with a non-defective valid cognizer sees a white snow mountain. But one whose mind is affected by drugs or disease or who is wearing blue glasses has the view of a blue snow mountain. He has that projection, that hallucination, that view of a blue snow mountain. His hallucinating mind projects that view. In reality, no blue snow mountain exists; there is no blue color there.

The teachings often give the example of a piece of rope appearing like a snake. You believe it is a snake and become terrified, when in fact there is no snake there. A woman in Singapore or Malaysia told me that once, near her house, she saw a piece of rope. She went to pick it up, but it was a snake! It was the other way around! She thought it was a rope and discovered it was a snake. Because it looked like a rope, her hallucinating mind made up the label rope. Her concept projected rope. Then rope appeared and she saw a rope. But the rope didn’t exist anywhere at all.

When you do retreat on the Heart Sutra or train your mind in emptiness daily, view things in a variety of ways so that you don’t become bored with just one technique. In the morning, make the plan, “I’m going to practice meditation on emptiness.” Decide at that time what you are going to practice the rest of the day, or during the breaks if you are doing retreat. By the way, break time does not mean you take a break from virtue. You don’t get even a second’s break from samsara, so you shouldn’t take even a moment’s break from virtue! For the benefit of yourself and other sentient beings, you need to practice Dharma constantly—this precious human life may be the only chance you’ll get. If you take rebirth in the lower realms, not only will you be overwhelmed by unimaginable suffering for an incredible length of time, but you will also have not the slightest opportunity to practice Dharma. Even future rebirth in the deva or human realms is no guarantee that you’ll have the opportunity to practice Dharma. For these reasons, it is important to use every moment of your life to practice, that is, to transform your mind, as much as you possibly can. In other words, break time simply means a break from sitting meditation. Meditation practice is divided into session time and break time. The breaks are another type of meditation time.

When in the morning you make a strong determination to practice mindfulness of emptiness during the rest of the day, it becomes easier to do so. Maintain awareness that “The I, action, and all phenomena appear as something real, there on the base, but this is all fabricated, or projected from negative imprints left on my hallucinating mind. Everything I perceive is projected by my hallucinating mind. None of it is there; it does not exist at all.” Think of the examples that I explained before.

In this way, practice the mindfulness that all these things are projections of your hallucinating mind and appear because of negative imprints left on your consciousness by previous ignorance. Practice this mindfulness with whatever appears in front of you right now. For example, you are looking at me and a real Lama Zopa appears from there. When you look at the flowers on the altar, real flowers appear from there. All existent objects—even the mind itself—appear as real, existing there, from the side of the base. They are all projected by your hallucinating mind because of the negative imprints that have been left on it. You do not need many words to practice this mindfulness. The most important thing is to practice it one-pointedly. When you do, the understanding that all these things are not true will arise in your heart. You will understand that they do not exist in the way that they appear to you. They are not there. Emptiness arises in your heart. This is an extremely effective way to practice mindfulness in everyday life.

Then, the next day, practice a different technique. For example, think of other beings’ point of view—how they see you, how they see everything. That also helps you understand that your view is completely wrong. Things appear to you and you apprehend them as one hundred percent real, just as they appear, but this is not what all the Buddhas, arhats, or arya bodhisattvas see. What they discover in meditative equipoise on the nature of reality is not this. What they discover is that all this is completely non-existent. Buddhas, arhats, and arya bodhisattvas see that everything—I, action, and object—is totally empty of the way that it appears to your mind, totally empty of existing in the way that you believe. Those who have perceived reality directly see the total opposite of what appears to you. They see that everything is totally empty. In the view of ignorance, everything exists from its own side, but in the view of wisdom, the reality of phenomena is emptiness. Wisdom realizes that nothing exists from its own side.

Another day, practice mindfulness of things being merely labeled by mind. For example, while walking, ask yourself, “What am I doing?” Answer, “I’m walking.” Ask yourself again, “Why do I say I’m walking?” You will see that there is no reason at all other than the body is doing the action of walking. That is the only reason. Because the body is walking, your mind labels and believes, “I’m walking.” Thus, the I is merely labeled by mind. Here, you can see clearly that the base, the aggregates, and the label, I, are different. You see the difference between the base, the aggregates, and the label, I, very clearly, and suddenly, the label I becomes very subtle; so subtle that it seems almost non-existent. It’s not that it doesn’t exist, but suddenly, to your mind, it is as if it doesn’t exist. You can differentiate the base, the aggregates, from the label, I, but much more than that, suddenly, for your knowledge, the label I seems like it is non-existent. It is not non-existent, but it becomes so subtle that it seems as if it is.

When the limbs of the body are moving, you call it “walking.” The action walking is merely imputed by the mind’s making up the label “walking.” Here again you can see clearly that the base (the limbs of the body moving) and the label (walking) are different.

Similarly, certain marks on the ground indicate that some people passed that way. In dependence upon this, your mind makes up the label “road.” Without those marks, there’s no reason for you to make up the label “road,” nothing to cause your mind to make up the label “road.” However, when you see the base—those marks on the ground indicating that other people have gone that way—it causes your mind to make up the label “road.” The base and the label “road” are different. Road is merely imputed by mind. Be mindful of this process with every object you encounter and every action you do throughout the day.
Similarly, what causes you to make up the particular label “tree”? There is no reason other than your seeing that particular phenomenon that has a trunk, branches and leaves and can be used to make things or burned to make fire. Seeing that particular phenomena causes your mind to make up the label “tree,” not “fire,” “water,” “wind,” or “earth.” You see the base, and your mind merely imputes the label “tree” in dependence upon it. Aside from the tree that exists by being imputed in this way, no other tree exists. There is no tree existing from its own side.

The tree is not there on the base. There are lots of trees at Vajrapani Institute, but there is no tree on that base. There is no tree on that association of the trunk, branches and leaves. But there is a tree at Vajrapani. In fact, there are lots of trees here! However, there is no tree stuck on the base. The tree appearing from there—the tree that cannot be differentiated from the base—is the refuted object. That is what you need to realize is empty, totally non-existent. As it is totally non-existent, you have to realize that that is how it is.

In such ways, train your mind in emptiness by thinking of subtle dependent arising, how everything is merely labeled by mind. Practice awareness of this. You can choose any of these methods, depending on which you find more effective.

Another way is to see the object of ignorance, the object of the concept of inherent existence, as false and empty. This applies to the I, action, object, all phenomena—anything that appears in your view. Here you practice differentiating the label from the base. You see the label—whatever phenomenon—is empty. It is not that it’s non-existent. It exists but it’s empty; it is empty of existing from its own side. Think of the examples. After realizing that what you labeled rope is really a snake, how do you feel about that object? When you realize that it’s a snake, how do you feel about the rope that you labeled before? How do you see that rope? Or use another example. After someone dies, people still talk about that person. However, that person does not exist. His or her collection of aggregates does not exist, so who or where is he or she? People talk about the label, the person, but how do you feel about that?

Another technique is to practice mindfulness of all phenomena—I, action, object, all sense objects—as being like a dream or a hallucination. All these inherently existing objects are a hallucination, a dream. You must make a subtle, but important distinction here. Inherently existing objects do not exist at all; they are a dream. However, conventionally existent objects are like a dream. They are not a dream. In other words, conventionally existent phenomena appear one way—as truly existent—but they do not exist as they appear. Similarly, dream objects appear real but do not exist in the way they appear.

In daily life, this mindfulness practice will help you when you face problems or difficulties. If a problem happens—for example, someone criticizes you—look at it like a dream. What is happening isn’t real. It is like having a problem in a dream. A different feeling arises in your heart; it is like someone causing you a problem in a dream but you are aware that it is a dream. How do you feel about that? How do you feel when you dream that someone is criticizing or abusing you, and at the same time you are aware that it is a dream, that it is not real. It doesn’t bother you. It doesn’t disturb your mind or cause anger to arise. Why? Because you know it’s not real.

Similarly, you can practice mindfulness that this is like an illusion created by a magician. Here, the magician is your own ignorance. What is like an illusion is the I, action, object, and all other phenomena appearing as not merely labeled by mind but as something real, appearing from there. In reality, there is no real enemy, no real problem, no real I who experiences problems. As the bodhisattva Togme Zangpo said in The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas,

All forms of suffering are like a child’s death in a dream.
Holding illusory appearances to be true makes you weary.
Therefore, when you meet with disagreeable circumstances,
See them as illusory—
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.

All the various sufferings and problems you have in life are like a child dying in a dream. You dreamed that you got married and had a child, and later that child died. You had a dream of your whole life; so many things happened, so many problems occurred. Even your body became old and your hair turned gray in the dream. But you didn’t recognize it as a dream and instead believed it was true. As a result, you suffered so much.

Even though Togme Zangpo spoke only of a child dying in the dream, he implies that your whole life with all its problems are like thirty, forty, or eighty years in a dream. It is very useful to reflect on this verse when you have problems in life, and reciting it is better than reciting a mantra, because you understand what it means. This is why it is very effective to recite a verse or a Dharma text to remind yourself of what to practice when problems arise. It changes your view of life by changing your concept. If your concept is that you are suffering or having problems, you feel miserable. If you change this concept, you have peace.

All this gives you an idea of how to meditate on emptiness. Whether you are in retreat or living a normal daily life, it is very important to practice bodhicitta and the wisdom understanding emptiness. These are the fundamental practices of the entire Mahayana teaching, and you can bring them to whatever you are doing. When you awaken in the morning, plan, “Today I will practice this technique for understanding emptiness.” The next day, think, “I will practice that one.” You do not need to divide the practices rigidly. Just use whichever technique is more beneficial for your mind at the time. All these techniques come to the same point.

Sometimes it may seem as if you are just saying the words “inherent existence” or “emptiness” without much understanding of what they mean. However, even if you cannot get the exact idea of emptiness in your meditation and it all seems like just a bunch of words, continue to meditate on emptiness by relying on and using these teachings. Since those words are unmistaken, each time you think of them, you leave a positive imprint on your mind. Even if you cannot practice precise meditation or concentration on emptiness, if you reflect on the unmistaken words, especially those of Lama Tsong Khapa’s teachings, you still leave positive imprints on your mind-stream. Then, sooner or later, when the conditions of strong guru devotion, strong purification, and the collection of strong, extensive merit come together, then, one day, unexpectedly, experiences and realizations will happen. Cultivating realizations of the path requires many imprints, so be happy to plant those seeds in your mind-stream and do not be discouraged if your understanding does not grow as quickly as you would like.

Chapter Five: Practicing Patience

Student: I’m not yet at the level where I can use meditation on emptiness or the illusory nature of phenomena as an antidote to my anger. When a problem is right in front of me, I try to remember emptiness, but the problem still seems enormous. What are some other tools I can use to counteract anger and avoid creating more negative karma?

Rinpoche: If you meditate on emptiness, it doesn’t help? The problem arises while you’re meditating on emptiness? The problem arises while it’s empty? Maybe I’m also involved in the problem! When you meditate on emptiness, the anger will stop because emptiness is a remedy for all the delusions. Why? Because it is the antidote to ignorance, which is the foundation of all the other delusions. Therefore, the minute you meditate on emptiness, anger will stop. Anger arises when you believe in the false object, the false I, the false enemy—all these things that do not exist. When you believe that they are true and that they really exist, anger arises.

When you meditate on emptiness, you look at the truth of the I, the truth of the other person, and you find that no foundation for anger exists. Thus emptiness is the most powerful antidote to the delusions. If anger arises after you have meditated on emptiness it is because there is no continuation of the meditation. Since the mindfulness of emptiness has stopped, anger can arise.

First, you have to remember to use a meditation technique when you have a problem. Often the problem is forgetting to use the technique. But once you remember the technique and use it, it works. If you do not remember to apply a meditation technique, the delusion will usually overwhelm you.
The first technique I recommend is to think about karma. This brings you back to the fundamental philosophy of Buddhism—no creator other than your own mind exists. Buddhists do not believe in God. Buddhists do not believe that there is a creator of your life who has a separate mind from yours. This basic Buddhist tenet differentiates Buddhism from other religions that believe in a creator God. From the Buddhist viewpoint, no external being who creates your life exists. There is no other creator besides your own mind, your own karma.

Whatever happens in your life comes from your own mind. Your aggregates (this association of body and mind, which includes your senses), the way you view objects of the senses (forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile objects), and the feelings that arise by the senses contacting these objects are suffering in nature. Your whole world comes from your mind because of the imprints of past karma—the positive, negative, and neutral karmic imprints left on your mind-stream. The events and experiences of your life are manifestations of those karmic imprints. Because of karmic imprints, you now have a human body, human aggregates. Your feelings of happiness or suffering are also due to the ripening of particular karmic imprints. Ultimately, all your experiences come from your mind.

Your aggregates, your senses, your view of sense objects, and the feelings you experience through contacting them arise from karma. Karma is the mental factor of intention. Where does karma come from? From ignorance. When we speak of the twelve links of dependent arising, ignorance is the first. From it comes karma, and from karma come all the results you experience. All these come from your mind, not only from karma—the mental factor of intention—but also from the ignorance that is the root of samsara, the concept of an inherently existent I. This is how your happiness and suffering evolve.

If your meditation on emptiness is not yet firm, then thinking about karma can be a very powerful way to stop anger. The minute you think about karma, there is no place in your mind for anger because you see there’s nobody and nothing to blame. Thinking of karma is putting into practice the basic Buddhist philosophy that there is no creator other than your mind. You need to apply that philosophy in your life. You shouldn’t just leave it as philosophy, written in a notebook that you keep on the top shelf of your bookcase, but remember and apply it in your daily life, especially when you have problems. The philosophy of karma is very effective not only to discuss as a philosophy but also to use in your life to calm your mind.

The moment anger arises, your mind believes in a creator. You think that someone else is creating your problem. “The problem I’m experiencing came from that person.” That is similar to believing in an external creator. You hold two contradictory attitudes—you talk about and believe karma and the philosophy of Buddhism, but when you encounter a difficulty in your daily life, you think that there is an external being who created it! Instead of practicing that there is no creator, you practice that there is a creator because the problem came from somebody else. “That person created my problem.” In daily life, you become just like practitioners of other religions; you practice that there is a creator. Even though you do not use the word “God,” you believe that there is a creator, somebody else who created your problem. With this as the basis, anger arises.

But the minute that you think that you are the creator, that your mind is the creator, that whatever you are experiencing comes from karma you yourself have created, you know that there is nothing external to blame, so there is no basis for anger to arise. The wish to retaliate and harm someone else is based on the belief that the other person is harming you, that you are an innocent victim who has nothing to do with the problem.

Generating compassion and the benefits of doing so

Thinking about karma first is powerful because it sets the foundation. On top of this, meditate on emptiness or compassion or any of the other techniques. In the sixth chapter of A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Shantideva said:

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

Thinking in this way is useful. It stops the mind that thinks that we should be able to harm others but should not receive any harm from them. That thought is very illogical. That is why Shantideva advised us to think, “I deserve to receive this harm. That is, it is natural for me to receive harm, because I harmed others in the past.” In the same text, Shantideva also said:

Having been instigated by my own actions,
Those who cause me harm come into being.
If by these (actions) they should fall into hell,
Surely isn’t it I who am destroying them?

In other words, think, “Who started all this? It’s not the other person. I started it because my karma—the harmful actions I did in previous lives—made this happen. In the past, I mistreated this sentient being, and that made the connection for me to receive harm now. My karma has persuaded this person to harm me now. By the other person harming me, he is creating negative karma, and that will cause him to take rebirth in the lower realms.” Question yourself: “Didn’t my action instigate what will be a very unfortunate situation for the other person?” Thinking like this will help you generate compassion for the other person, and when your mind feels compassion, there is no room for anger.

In this way, you use the fact that the person is harming you to develop compassion for him. You use the problem to generate compassion and bodhicitta for him. By generating bodhicitta, you will be able to actualize the entire Mahayana path to enlightenment, including the six paramitas, the sutra path and the tantra path. You will be able to cease all the mistakes of mind, complete all realizations of the path, and attain enlightenment. Depending on this person who is harming you, you will receive all these benefits. Due to his kindness and your generating compassion for him, in the future you will be able to free all sentient beings from suffering and bring them to full enlightenment. Being able to offer such incredible benefit to all sentient beings in the future is due to the kindness of this person. By his harming you, he causes you to generate compassion, which is the root of the Mahayana path.

You can also think, “This person is so precious and kind because due to him I can receive all the benefits of practicing patience. Developing compassion for this one sentient being now will enable me to generate compassion for all sentient beings later.” This person is so kind and precious because he is helping you to stop harming all sentient beings and have compassion for them. By your ceasing to harm them and benefiting them instead, sentient beings will receive much peace and happiness. The opportunity for you to offer all this peace and happiness to all sentient beings comes from this one person who gave you the chance to practice patience.

The Dharma contains many different ways of thinking to counteract anger. We have already discussed thinking of karma, cultivating compassion, and remembering the benefits of practicing patience. There are others as well. You should apply the ways that are most effective for your mind. In The Door of Liberation, Geshe Wangyal translated into English a collection of advice from the Kadampa masters. Included in it are six techniques for practicing patience. You may want to write them down or memorize them so that you can use them when the need arises.

Shantideva explained, as did Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo in Liberation in Your Palm, a technique that is very effective for using the harm received from another person to develop compassion for him. If someone beats you with a stick, you usually do not get angry at the stick because it has no freedom; it is under the control of the person. Similarly, the person harming you is under the control of her anger. She isn’t free; she has become a slave of her anger. Therefore, this person, who is not free and who is controlled by her anger, is only an object of compassion. Don’t just leave it at that, but take the responsibility of pacifying that person’s anger. “I must do something to pacify her anger by whatever means I can find to help her mind.” If at the moment there is nothing you can do to help directly, then pray to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to pacify her anger.
    
I need somebody to hate me
    
His Holiness the Dalai Lama normally encourages us to meditate on the kindness of the angry person, to see that he is as precious and kind as the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Guru. Why is that person kind? If nobody ever gets angry at you, you can never develop patience. Think, “If everybody loved me, if nobody ever got angry at me, I would never be able to develop patience, that precious and essential quality of mind on the path to enlightenment. Therefore, I need somebody to be angry at me. I really need this in my life. It’s so important that somebody be angry at me.”

That person’s anger is not precious to that person, but it is for you. For the other person, his anger is torture. It throws him into the lower realms. “For that person, his anger is terrible, but for me, his being angry at me is so precious, so essential.” Normally, you say you need somebody to love you. You feel that need so deeply inside. But in the same way, think that you need somebody to hate you—having somebody dislike you is even more important than having somebody love you. Why? Because somebody loving you does not help you actualize the path to enlightenment, does not help you cultivate the qualities needed to benefit all sentient beings. But if somebody harms you and you use that experience to transform your mind into patience, the path to enlightenment lies open in front of you. If you practice patience, your anger evaporates and other sentient beings do not receive harm from you. Through your great patience, they receive only peace and happiness from you. Thus, the angry person is most kind because he gives you the precious opportunity to do this. His being mad at you is like a wish-fulfilling jewel.

The disadvantages of anger

Reflecting on the disadvantages of anger is also useful. Anger destroys your merit. It destroys not only your happiness now, in this life, but also your long-term happiness, your opportunity to attain liberation and enlightenment. Anger is a great obstacle to your realizing bodhicitta, because you can’t have great love and compassion for sentient beings if you can’t stand them. In addition, depending on who you get angry at, your receiving realizations may be delayed for many thousands of eons. A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life mentions that getting angry once delays realizations by one thousand eons. However, this person being angry at you gives you the opportunity of practicing patience. Think, “Due to this, I will be able to overcome my anger. I’ll be able to complete the paramita of patience, fulfill the two collections, cease all obscurations in my mind, and realize the entire path to enlightenment. I’ll be able to free all sentient beings from suffering and lead them to enlightenment.” All this infinite benefit that you can offer to all sentient beings comes from practicing patience for that person, and that depends on her harming you. So you can see that her anger at you is very important and necessary in your Dharma practice.

When you are upset, you can also think about impermanence and death. You could die today, so what’s the point of getting angry? Thinking in this way is very powerful. Also, think that the angry person could also die at any time. This helps you let go of your anger and generate patience and compassion for the other person.

Practicing patience does not mean withdrawing or hiding. It does not mean avoiding finding solutions to problems. You have responsibilities, so you have to use your compassion and wisdom to solve problems as much as possible. As His Holiness says, when it is beyond your capacity to solve a problem, you have to rely on higher objects, the Triple Gem, for aid, but otherwise, use your own abilities and do whatever you can do yourself. Most importantly, cultivate patience, the ability to remain calm in the face of problems and harm. To do this, use whichever techniques are most powerful for you.