Mirror of Wisdom - Teachings on Emptiness
Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen
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Commentaries on the emptiness section of Mind
Training Like the Rays of the Sun and The
Heart Sutra.
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Contents
Part 1
Publishers Note
Buddha Shakyamuni taught the Perfection of Wisdom, otherwise
known as the Wisdom Gone Beyond,on Vulture's Peak, Rajgir,
in what is today the Indian state of Bihar.
These sutras focus on the subject of emptiness, the ultimate
nature of reality, and the Heart Sutra is one of the most
significant. It is a beautifully condensed version of the
Buddha's teachings on emptiness, containing their essential
meaning in only a few lines. Geshe Gyeltsen tells us that
by integrating this teaching with our minds, it is possible
for us to become enlightened within a single lifetime. Mind
Training Like the Rays of the Sun was authored by Namkha Pel,
a close student of the great Tibetan scholar and yogi, Lama
Tsong Khapa. It is a commentary to the Seven Point Mind Training,
which was composed by the Kadampa master, Geshe Chekawa. The
mind training tradition was introduced to Tibet by the renowned
Indian master Atisha and contains practices for generating
bodhicitta, the altruistic attitude that seeks enlightenment
for the sake of others. In this book, Geshe Gyeltsen focuses
on the emptiness section of Namkha Pel's text.
The subject of emptiness is very profound. Here, Geshe-la
gives us clear and extensive instructions on the topic so
that we may come to understand and experience its meaning.
The realization of the wisdom of emptiness is vital to our
spiritual development. As Geshe-la says, "We must realize
that all the suffering we experience comes from the delusions
in our mind. In order to cut through these delusions, we need
the weapon of the wisdom perceiving emptiness."
Geshe Gyeltsen gave this commentary on the Heart Sutra over
a period of months, beginning in May, 1994, when his center,
Thubten Dhargye Ling, was still located in West Los Angeles.
By the time he gave the teachings on the emptiness section
of Mind Training Like the Rays of the Sun in September, 1996,
Thubten Dhargye Ling had moved to its present location in
Long Beach.
Thubten Dhargye Ling Publications extend our deepest gratitude
to Geshe-la for giving these teachings, to Lotsawa Tenzin
Dorjee for translating them into English and to Hung The Quach
for interpreting for the Vietnamese students. We are also
grateful to Rebecca McClen Novick, Linda Gatter and Nicholas
Ribush for editing this work for publication, to Mark Gatter
for designing the book and to the LAMA YESHE WISDOM ARCHIVE
for supervising its production. Many thanks are also due to
Venerable Ani Tenzin Kachö, who assisted in the transcribing
of Mind Training Like the Rays of the Sun; to Linh Phuy, the
translator of the Vietnamese edition of this book; to Doren
Harper for initiating and organizing this project; and to
Doren and Mary Harper for offering most of the funds required
for publication.
We extend heartfelt thanks as well to the following generous
contributors: Iku Bacon, Angie Barkmeijer de Wit, Karen Bennike,
Jeff Bickford, Roger Bosse, Bill & Margie Brown, Christina
Cao, Regina Dipadova, Annie Do, Walter Drake, Michael Fogg,
Jim & Sesame Fowler, Robert Friedman, Matthew Frum, Eric
W. Gruenwald, Gail Gustafson, Bev Gwyn, Alisha & Rachelle
Harper, Robin Hart, Elwood & Linda Higgley, Thao X. Ho,
Elaine Jackson, John Jackson, Leslie A. Jamison, Ven. Tenzin
Kachö, Paul, Trisha, Rachel & Daniel Kane, Judy Kann,
Donald Kardok, Barbara Lee, Oanh N. Mai, Vicky Manchester,
Maryanne Miss, Michael & Bonnie Moore, Terrence Moore,
Tam Nguyen, Quan K. Pham, Thanh Mai Pham, Richard Prinz, Gary
Renlau, Gary & Sandy Schlageter, David & Susan Schwartz,
Stuart & Lillie Scudder, Charlotte Tang, Christel Taylor
and Shasta & Angelica Wallace.
We are also deeply grateful to the many benefactors who asked
to remain anonymous and to those kind people whose donations
were made after this book went to press. We'll mention you
next time! Thank you all so much.
Last but not least, we offer sincere thanks in general to
all the students of Thubten Dhargye Ling and our other centers
for their devotion to and constant support of our kind teacher,
Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen, and his far-reaching Dharma work.
Introduction
MOTIVATION
Please take a moment to cultivate the altruistic motivation
of seeking complete enlightenment for the sake of liberating
all sentient beings throughout space. It is with this kind
of motivation, which we call the motivation of bodhicitta,
that you should participate in this teaching. It is very important
that you don't read or listen to teachings simply because
someone else coerces or expects you to do so. Your involvement
should spring from your own wish to practice the teachings
with the aim of accomplishing enlightenment for yourself as
well as for others. As you apply yourself to this mind training
practice, you should do so full of sincerity and whole-heartedness.
If you have a wavering or doubting mind, it will negatively
affect your practice. In the lam-rim-the treatises on the
graduated path to enlightenment -the great Tibetan master
Lama Tsong Khapa states that if our mind is positive and wholesome
we will attain positive and wholesome results. Cultivating
a good attitude motivates us to engage in positive actions
and these return positive results to us. If our attitude and
motivation are negative, however, we will create negative
actions that will bring us unwanted pains and problems. Everything
depends on the mind.
This is why the teacher or lama always advises the audience
to cultivate a proper motivation at the beginning of every
teaching. The historical Buddha often advised his disciples
that they should listen well, listen thoroughly and hold the
teachings in their minds. At the beginning of the lam-rim,
there is an outline that states that the audience ONE
should be free from what are known as "the three faults
of the container." When Buddha said, "Listen well,"
he meant that when we participate in the teachings we should
do so with pure motivation. We should be like an uncontaminated
vessel-a clean pot. When he said, "Listen thoroughly,"
he meant that the listener should not be like a container
or pot that is turned upside-down because nothing will be
able to enter it. And when Buddha said, "Hold the teachings
in your mind," he meant that the listener should not
be like a leaky pot, one that does not retain its contents;
in other words, we should try to remember the teachings that
are given.
The simple reason we all need spirituality, especially Dharma,
in our lives is because it is the source of true peace and
happiness for ourselves as well as for others. It is the perfect
solution for the unwanted problems and pains we face in this
cycle of existence, or samsara. For example, we all know that
if there were no food or drink in the world, then our very
existence would be threatened because these are the basic
necessities of life. Food and drink are related to the sustenance
of this earthly life, but Dharma is much more important because
it is through Dharma that we can remove the misconceptions
and ignorance, which cause all our deeper problems. The Tibetan
word for Dharma is nang-chö, which means "inner
science" or "inner knowledge." This tells us
that all of the Buddha's teaching is primarily aimed at subduing
the inner phenomenon of our mind.
In this way, we begin to understand the significance and
necessity of Dharma in our lives. As we learn to appreciate
the Dharma more and more it enables us to do a better job
of coping with the difficulties we encounter. With this understanding
and appreciation we will then feel enthusiastic about applying
ourselves to spirituality. We will find ourselves cherishing
the Dharma as if it were a precious treasure from which we
wish to never part. For example, if we possess some gold we
are naturally going to cherish it. We're not going to dump
it in the trash because we know its value and what it can
do for us. Yet the value of gold is limited to only this existence;
when we die we can't take even a speck of gold with us. But
spirituality is something that follows us into our future
lives. If we don't practice Dharma then our spiritual life,
which exists forever, will be threatened.
Having become an enlightened being, Buddha showed us the
complete path leading to liberation and enlightenment. He
did this out of his total love and compassion, without any
kind of selfish motive. The kind of love we are talking about
is the wish that everyone will have true peace and happiness
and the best of everything. Compassion means the wish that
everyone will be free from all kinds of suffering. The best
way to follow the Buddha's teachings is to do our own practice
with this kind of attitude and motivation. It may seem that
this world is filled with people who generally don't appear
to care about spirituality at all. So why should we care so
much? But the fact that these people don't care for spirituality
doesn't mean that they don't need it. Every sentient being
needs spirituality, from humans down to the smallest insect
living beneath the earth. The wish for lasting peace and happiness
and the wish to be free from any kind of suffering is not
something exclusive to us; it is something that is shared
by all sentient beings. However, many people don't realize
the value of spirituality and do not have access to the Dharma.
In his Ornament for Clear Realizations, Maitreya states, "Even
if the king of divine beings brings down a rain upon the earth,
unsuitable seeds will never germinate. In the same way, when
enlightened beings come to the world, those who do not have
the fortune to meet them can never taste the nectar of Dharma."
So, we shouldn't look down on those who don't engage in spirituality
or consider them to be bad people; it is just that they have
not been fortunate enough to encounter spirituality and put
it into practice. This is a good reason to extend our compassion
to them. Like us, they seek true peace and happiness, but
unlike us, they do not have the means to find what they desire.
Basically, there is no difference between us and them-we are
all in the same boat-but at the same time, we should appreciate
our own great fortune in having the opportunity to participate
in the Dharma. Understanding this, we should develop the strong
determination that in this lifetime we will do our best to
study and practice spirituality in order to take the best
care of our future lives. We should try to remind ourselves
of these points as often as possible.
It is important for us to understand that all our Dharma
actions are very valuable, whether we are studying or listening
to spiritual teachings, giving spiritual teaching to others
or engaging in our practice. Whatever Dharma teaching we practice
we must be sure that it is helping us to transform our state
of mind for the better. We have to integrate the Dharma with
our own mental state. If, as we study, we leave a gap between
our mind and the Dharma, we defeat the purpose of spiritual
practice. We wear the Dharma like an ornament and, like an
ornament, it might look attractive, but it does not affect
us on the inside.
If we want to grow a tree, we need to water the soil around
the seed. It's not enough just to fill a bucket with water
and leave it near the field. This is sometimes the case with
our practice. Burying ourselves in all kinds of Dharma books
and other publications and collecting intellectual knowledge
about the Dharma is not sufficient. What is required is that
we apply the Dharma to our own lives so that we bring about
positive changes in the actions of our body, speech and mind.
Then we get the true benefit of the Dharma and manifest such
changes as can be seen by other people.
Let's examine where our unwanted pains and problems come
from. For example, most of you work all day and keep yourselves
busy mentally and physically. You would probably rather relax,
so what is it that makes you rush about leading such a busy
life? What is it that makes you work like a slave, beyond
trying to pay the rent or feed your family? Maybe you get
upset over some disagreement or maybe your mind becomes disturbed
and as a result you also become physically tense. Or perhaps,
due to some kind of sickness, both your mind and body become
unsettled. You have to find the root cause of all such problems
and difficulties of daily life.
The fact of the matter is, eventually all of us must die.
After we die, we have to take rebirth. We need to discover
what precipitates our rebirth in "bad migrations"-the
negative situations of the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms.
Even when we take a very good rebirth, we still experience
many problems related to work, health, aging, dying and death.
We have to determine the underlying cause of all these difficulties.
First, what is it that experiences all these problems? Is
it only beings with a mind or do even inanimate objects experience
them? Secondly, what creates these problems-mind or inanimate
phenomena? The answer to both questions is the mind. Only
mind can experience and create all the kinds of suffering
that we and others go through. Is it another's mind that creates
our problems and puts us through all this hell or is it our
own mind that creates them? The minds of others cannot create
the difficulties that we as individual people go through,
just as the karmic actions of others cannot cause our problems.
You cannot experience the karma created by others. That is
simply not part of the law of karmic action and result. You
don't have to take this on faith; it is a good idea to investigate
this matter from your own side.
If we continue to study and practice, one of these days we
will be able to see the kind of problematic situations we
create for ourselves. We will see that motivated by delusion,
we engage in all kinds of wrong karmic actions, which cause
us pain and difficulty.
Now I am going to comment on a text called Mind Training
Like the Rays of the Sun, which is Namkha Pel's commentary
on the Seven Point Mind Training text composed by the great
master, Geshe Chekawa. It belongs to a special category of
Buddhist texts called lojong, which means "mind training"
or "thought transformation." The mind training system
provides methods to train and transform our minds and focuses
on how to generate great love (mahamaitri), great compassion
(mahakaruna) and the altruistic mind of enlightenment (bodhicitta).
When we read different Buddhist treatises or listen to different
teachings on the same topic, we should try to bring together
our understanding from many different sources. When we work
on a project we use both hands. Our left and right hands don't
clash but rather complement each other and work in unison.
In the same way, we should bring whatever understanding we
gain from studying different texts concerning a specific topic,
to augment and complement our practice.
WHAT IS A BUDDHIST?
The Tibetan word for Buddhist is nang-pa, which literally
means "one who is focused on inner reality." This
refers to someone who concentrates more on his or her inner
world than on external phenomena. This is perhaps the most
important point regarding Buddhist practice. Our primary goal
is to subdue and transform our state of mind-our inner reality.
In this way, we seek to improve all our actions of body and
speech, but especially those of mind. I occasionally observe
that some people modify their external actions while internally
there isn't any kind of positive change going on at all. Things
might even be deteriorating. Even as we try to practice the
Buddhist teachings, our delusions of ignorance, attachment,
anger and so forth become more rampant. When this happens,
it is not because there is something wrong with our spiritual
path. It is because our own faulty actions contaminate the
teachings and therefore we cannot experience the complete
results of our practice. When such things happen, it is very
important not to let go of our practice. Instead, we should
understand that in some way we are not properly applying the
teachings to ourselves.
How do we distinguish Buddhists from non-Buddhists? A Buddhist
is someone who has gone for refuge from the depths of his
or her heart to what are known as the Three Jewels or the
Triple Gem-the Jewel of Buddha, the Jewel of Dharma and the
Jewel of Sangha. Having gone for refuge to the Jewel of Buddha,
we should be careful not to follow misleading guides or teachers.
Having taken refuge in the Jewel of Dharma, we should not
harm any sentient being no matter what its size. Furthermore,
we should cultivate compassion, the wish to ensure that all
beings are free from unwanted mental and physical problems.
And having taken refuge in the Jewel of the Sangha, or the
spiritual community, we should not participate in a club,
group or organization that brings harm to ourselves or other
beings.
We need to try to discover the source of our own and others'
suffering and then find out what path or method we can use
to destroy it. The next thing is to apply ourselves enthusiastically
and consistently to this method. If we do that, we will be
able to free ourselves from all kinds of suffering, which
means that we will free ourselves from samsara, help others
free themselves from samsara and eventually attain the state
of highest enlightenment.
WHAT IS BUDDHA NATURE?
Buddha nature is the latent potentiality for becoming a buddha,
or enlightened being-it is the seed of enlightenment. There
are two kinds of buddha nature-"naturally abiding buddha
nature" and "developable buddha nature." According
to Theravada Buddhism, there are certain beings that do not
have buddha nature, but from the Mahayana perspective, every
sentient being down to the smallest insect has both seeds
of enlightenment within them. Even a person who is incredibly
evil and negative still has these two buddha natures, both
of which can be activated sometime in the future.
This does not mean that people who are making a great effort
to accomplish enlightenment and those who do no spiritual
practice at all are no different from each other. For those
who don't practice, realization of their buddha nature is
only a mere possibility and it will take them an unimaginably
long time to become enlightened. Others, who are striving
for enlightenment, will reach that state much faster because
what they are practicing is actually contributing towards
the activation their buddha nature.
There are three levels of bodhi, or enlightenment. There
is the enlightenment of hearers, or shravakas; the enlightenment
of solitary realizers, or pratyekabuddhas; and the enlightenment
of the Greater Vehicle, or Mahayana. It is the latter that
we are discussing here-the highest form of enlightenment,
the enlightenment of bodhisattvas. It is a unique characteristic
of Mahayana Buddhism that each of us who follows and cultivates
the path as a practitioner can eventually become a buddha,
or enlightened person. We may doubt our ability to become
an enlightened being, but the truth is that we all share the
same potential.
Developable buddha nature and naturally abiding buddha nature
are posited from the point of view of potencies that can eventually
transform into enlightened bodies. Our naturally abiding buddha
nature eventually enables us to achieve the truth body of
enlightenment, the state of dharmakaya. The form body of enlightenment,
or rupakaya, is called "developable" buddha nature
because it can be developed, eventually transforming into
rupakaya. If all the favorable conditions are created then
these buddha natures, or seeds, will germinate on the spiritual
path and bloom into the fruit of enlightenment. However, if
we just keep on waiting around thinking, "Well, eventually
I am going to become a buddha anyway, so I don't have to do
anything," we will never get anywhere. The seeds of enlightenment
must be activated through our own effort.
COMPASSION AND BODHICITTA
Bodhicitta is the altruistic mind of enlightenment. There
is conventional bodhicitta, or the conventional mind of enlightenment,
and there is ultimate bodhicitta, or the ultimate mind of
enlightenment. Bodhicitta is the bodhisattva's "other-oriented"
attitude-it is the gateway to Mahayana Buddhism. The wisdom
perceiving emptiness is not the entrance to Mahayana Buddhism
because it is common to both Theravada and Mahayana. Hearers
and solitary realizers also cultivate the wisdom of emptiness
in order to realize their spiritual goals. Before we can actually
experience bodhicitta we must experience great compassion.
The Sanskrit word for great compassion is mahakaruna. The
word karuna means "stopping happiness." This might
sound like a negative goal but it is not. When you cultivate
great compassion, it stops you from seeking the happiness
of nirvana for yourself alone. As Maitreya puts it in his
Ornament for Clear Realizations, "With compassion, you
don't abide in the extreme of peace." What this means
is that with great compassion you don't seek only personal
liberation, or nirvana. Compassion is the root of the Buddha's
teaching, especially the Mahayana. Whenever anyone develops
and experiences great compassion, he or she is said to have
the Mahayana spiritual inclination and to have become a member
of the Mahayana family. We may not have such compassion at
the present time; nonetheless, we should be aspiring to achieve
it.
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