Sun Radiance: Thought Transformation, 22 May 1990, part 1

So we should begin by reflecting, developing the determination that for the sake of myself and all sentient beings I must eliminate all my various faults and bring to consummation all my excellent qualities. If I am able to do that, to eliminate all my various faults and bring the consummation of my excellent qualities, then I’ll be able to establish all sentient beings in complete happiness. And developing the kind heart that in order to actually bring this about in fact I am going to train my mind in the supreme of vehicles, the great vehicle, and within that the view of emptiness, and therefore developing the awakening heart as a motivation for listening to the present teaching. We will spend five minutes meditating that way. Quoting a verse from Śāntideva which he is talking about the great number of teachings that the Buddha taught in the lesser vehicle and the great vehicle.

Teachings concerning generosity, ethics, patience, effort, concentration, wisdom, teachings concerning the four noble truths, etcetera. And it is said that why did he teach all of these various teachings? That the sole purpose for presenting all of these teachings was as a method to develop the wisdom understanding emptiness. Where it had not been developed previously, to newly generate it. Where it had been generated previously, to maintain it.

And where it had been maintained, to increase it higher and higher. So just as in the verse that we recite as dedication where it says, may the precious body mind not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline, but increase forevermore. Likewise that it is said that the Buddha taught the doctrine of emptiness as a means for to newly generate this understanding that having newly generated that we should go on to understand it such that it will not degenerate but will be able to maintain it. And not only maintain it but to increase it higher and higher.

The view of emptiness is given paramount importance. And why is that? It is because all sentient beings who whosoever do not want to suffer, they all want complete happiness. And that type of happiness is a happiness which is brought about by means of eliminating the various afflictive emotions and thereby all of the suffering of cyclic existence. That is to say the bliss of liberation.

And without the view of emptiness and its understanding, we cannot achieve in any way the bliss of liberation. It is by means of the meditation on emptiness that we are able to destroy the roots of our suffering, the foundation of our suffering and that is ignorance. It is by the wisdom of emptiness which is able to destroy the root of cyclic existence which is the conception of self. And by means of this we are able to completely eliminate from its very roots sources of our suffering. Just as in the case of if we have a seed of a flower, if we were to pour scalding hot water on that seed it would destroy its potency.

It would die. It would never be able to sprout again. You know, we we speak of emptiness as being important. But in general, we can’t say that it’s important. What is important is that we realize it without.

It’s of no benefit in itself. It’s not important in itself, but it is of great benefit if it’s realized within our mind. Then it becomes important. It becomes something very precious. That is to gain the understanding of emptiness is what is important, not just emptiness in itself.

If we are seeking to realize emptiness within our own mind, the individual within ourselves as a means to eliminate the root of cyclic existence which also exists within our own mind. Just like that flower seed and pouring scalding hot water on it to destroy that. If the fact that emptiness does not, the realization of emptiness does not exist out there in the earth somewhere, we have to realize that emptiness within our mind. Why? Because the root of cyclic existence also exists within our own mind.

And by gaining this realization, we are able to destroy the root of cyclic existence and thereby our own suffering. And therefore this is the reason that we have to meditate on emptiness ourselves for ourselves to gain that realization for ourselves to eliminate the root of suffering which is in ourselves. So it is necessary for us to realize emptiness individually. And in order to realize that we must come to an understanding. And how are we going to come to that understanding?

It’s necessary to listen to the teachings on mind training and the various methods. What do we mean by emptiness? Emptiness is not simply nothingness. It is not nothing. It is not simply a vacuum, an empty, a vacuum.

It is not that. If you meditate in that way, you’re not meditating on emptiness. Then what do we mean by emptiness? Is emptiness is an absence of a particular factor. It is an absence of a particular factor.

It is the non existence of a particular factor. Just as in the case we say, oh, my stomach is empty. What we mean is that there’s an absence of say, tea and food and various edibles in our stomach, and we say, my stomach is empty. There’s an absence of a particular factor when we say my stomach is empty. Another similar example, when we say, when we open our purse, and we say, oh my purse is empty.

What we what we mean by that is, there’s no money in there. There’s the non existence of money in my purse. There’s an absence of money in my purse. And there’s something there’s a factor which is not there. There’s an absence of a particular factor, and we say my purse is empty.

I don’t have any money. Likewise, when we talk about emptiness, we’re talking about the absence of it of a particular factor. The negation of a particular factor, its absence. And we use many different terms to talk about this factor which is absent, we use terms such as true existence, natural existence, inherent objective existence, existence from its own side. These are just different names for the same object, names for the same object using different terms but with the same meaning.

Just as in the case when we say flower, we also use the Tibetan word, names for the same object. Likewise, we say water, we use the Tibetan word chu. The different names for the same object have the same meaning, but different words, different terms. So when we say the the nonexistence of true existence, that’s emptiness. The nonexistence of true existence is emptiness.

The nonexistence of natural existence is emptiness. The nonexistence of inherent existence is emptiness. The nonexistence of objective existence is is emptiness. So we say that the non existence of true existence, so that true existence is not the non existence of true existence is what we mean by emptiness. But we we there should arise in our mind some kind of qualm, some kind of doubt.

What is this thing called true existence? Without understanding what we mean by true existence, we can never understand what we mean by the absence of true existence. It’s non existence. So what we have to unless we understand what true existence, unless that appears to our mind, what a thing would be if it was truly existent, we’re not going to understand the nonexistence of true existence. Just as in the case, there’s generally one monk here, whose name is Tenzin.

There’s usually one monk here, his name is Tenzin. If we said, oh, Tenzin is not here today, and you knew who Tenzin was, would have some meaning to you. You would understand what the absence of Tenzin meant. But if if you didn’t know who Tenzin was, it would mean it would mean nothing to you when I said Tenzin was not here. If you didn’t know what Tenzin was, when I said Tenzin is not here, it would mean nothing to you.

You would not understand the absence of Tenzin. Just in the way that we have to understand Tenzin to understand that Tenzin is not here. Likewise we have to understand what true existence is before we can understand that there is no such thing as true existence that it doesn’t exist. So another qualm may arise. We said in order to understand emptiness, we must identify or recognize true existence.

Since we have to identify and recognize true existence, the qualm may arise, does true existence exist? True existence does not exist. If true existence existed, then emptiness would not exist. There would be no emptiness. But because emptiness exists, that means that true existence cannot exist because the things are empty of true existence.

And you might go on to think, well, if true existence doesn’t exist, then there’s no identification. There’s no way of identifying true existence. So we question whether we can identify whether the identification of true existence exists. True existence doesn’t exist. True existence does not exist.

But if it but we want to understand is if it did exist, what would it be like? That’s what we want to identify. That’s what we go on to examine. If true existence did exist, what would it be like? Understanding what it would be like, we come to we examine that, and we say, ah, it doesn’t exist.

It doesn’t exist. And then we understand emptiness. So in general, say that, not in general, true existence does not exist. True true existence does not exist. But we do not realize that true existence does not exist.

That is to say, we do not realize emptiness. Therefore, true existence appears to us. True existence is always appearing to us, to our various awarenesses, to our various consciousnesses. This object which appears to us is the object of negation. It is to be refuted.

But because we don’t realize its emptiness, we accept this appearance as being that the object actually exists the way it appears. That there appears true existence and we say, ah yes, things really do truly exist. And we accede to that appearance and we grasp to that appearance as if it in fact existed that way. This awareness which grasps to the existence of true existence is a distorted and mistaken awareness. The true existence appears to our various consciousnesses.

It appears, for example, to the eye consciousness. Then the mental consciousness that appearance, it grasps as to that appearance as if in effect it exists, the way it appears. This grasping toward the true, that consciousness which grasps to the true existence of that object is ignorance. It is a distorted consciousness. The appearance, the objects appear to the sense consciousnesses to truly exist.

The mental consciousness which grasps at that appearance to be the way the, to grasp at that object to exist the way it appears is ignorance. The mental conscious which grasps at the object to exist the way it appears, that is they truly existent, is ignorance. We have to investigate the object which is being grasped at to be truly existent. If the object existed the object as it appears, what would it be like? How would it have to exist?

If the object existed just in the way we are grasping at it. When we perform this analysis, we see by making use and analyzing by using various reasonings that in fact the object does not exist the way it’s being grasped at. The object does not exist the way in which it’s being grasped at. That non existence is that understanding of its non existence is the realization of its emptiness. Object does not exist the way it’s being grasped at.

That non existence of that object the way it’s being grasped at, that understanding, that conscious which understand that the object does not exist the way it’s being grasped at is the realization of emptiness. We’re using some analogies to understand it readily. So within the various tenets, the schools of philosophy, Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka school makes use of analogy of a striped rope in coming to this understanding. The Svatāntrika Madhyamaka School uses analogy of a magician in coming to this understanding. Beginning with this analogy according to the Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka school.

There this was roughly explained previously. There is a coiled striped rope, and due to darkness that the object does not appear clearly. And a person sees with their eye consciousness the appearance of a snake. What is actually a coiled right striped rope appears to the eye consciousness as a snake. The mental consciousness then rests at that appearance to be that there really is a snake and the person generates a great deal of fear.

So there is an appearance to the sense consciousness, the eye consciousness, and then the mental consciousness grasps at that appearance to be that way the object really exists. And due to this, in this case, they’re degenerates fear of that object. So how did that fear arise with respect to that snake? From where did that from where no. From where did the fear of a snake arise?

From where did the fear of a snake arise? First, there was an eye consciousness to which a snake appeared. That eye consciousness induced a mental consciousness, that is to say a conception, which as if decided or acceded to that appearance, thinking, ah, there is really a snake there. This followed upon the appearance to an eye consciousness. There arose a conception, grasping at the that appearance as in fact existing.

So these are the stages, the, through which there arose the fear of snake. First, there appeared, there was simply the appearance to an eye consciousness of a snake. Then the mental consciousness grasped at that appearance as in fact a snake existing in that way, conceived of that, that is conceived or grasped at that appearance as being a snake, and in dependence upon that fear arose. So there is this gradual stages of the arising of fear of snake. So if you were to say to this person, that’s not really a snake, he wouldn’t believe you at all.

He’s grasping at that as if it is a snake, and during that time, his mind is not able to conceive of it as not being a snake. So he has a strong belief accepting that object as actually being a snake. Is that the way it works? This consciousness which which is grasping at snake. Another word for grasping is conceiving.

These words are used interchangeably. Conceiving of snake or grasping at snake. Is that a mistaken consciousness or is that a factual consciousness? Is that a correct consciousness? Is that a mistaken consciousness or a correct consciousness?

The consciousness which is grasping at snake. The consciousness which is grasping at snake, which is conceiving of snake. It’s a distorted consciousness. It’s mistaken in that it’s grasping at something which does not exist to exist. Likewise, to the eye consciousness which sees the flower, the flower appears to exist objectively from its own side, and not be, and is not designated by awareness.

It appears to exist from its own side, and not to be designated by awareness. Likewise, there proceeds the, this induces a mental consciousness which grasps at that appearance that the flower exists as it appears. That the flower exists as it appears. It accedes to this appearance accepting that the flower exists as it appears. That grasping consciousness is the conception of true existence or the ignorance.

Analogy, conception which grasps at a rope to be a snake is the mirror of the consciousness which is grasping at true existence. It’s a parallel. Parallel. So there are two consciousness which could operate with with respect to the appearance of a snake. There is the consciousness which accedes to the appearance, thinking that that snake is existing from its own side, that it truly is a snake, or there could arise a consciousness which understands that that appearance really doesn’t exist from the side of the snake.

It’s a projection of one’s own mind. So to the person who has generated fear of snake, which of those two types of consciousness are operating? The consciousness which is grasping.