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Emptiness and Dependent Arising: Je Tsongkhapa’s Instructions – Part 2
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- Buddhist Classics and Philosophy
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- Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling
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Excerpt
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche explains that renunciation and bodhichitta must be completed by wisdom, especially the understanding of dependent arising and emptiness. Through vivid examples, he shows how appearances function without being truly existent, and how recognizing this protects practitioners from the extremes of eternalism and nihilism.
Description
In this second part, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche continues his teaching on Je Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path, focusing especially on the third principle: wisdom. He explains that renunciation and bodhichitta are indispensable, but without wisdom they cannot cut the root of delusion. Rinpoche presents dependent arising as the key to understanding emptiness, showing that the very order of cause and effect—which ordinary beings use to prove that things truly exist—is used in Madhyamaka to show that things are empty of solid, independent existence. Using examples such as a reflection in a mirror, a rainbow, and a child’s sandcastle, he explains the union of appearance and emptiness: appearances function vividly and reliably, yet cannot be found as truly existing. He concludes that through hearing, contemplation, and practice, one gradually learns not to fall into extremes of existence or nonexistence, thereby fulfilling the analysis of the view taught by the Buddha.
Related Course Info
- Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche: Study, Practice, and the Path In honor of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s birthday on June 18, DharmaSun is happy to offer these two teachings again in the new DharmaSun video format. Given at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery for the students of Rangjung Yeshe Institute, the teachings explore the relationship between academic study and Dharma practice, as well as Je Tsongkhapa’s profound instructions on renunciation, bodhichitta, and wisdom.
Video
Audio
37:52
In one stanza, it's written about
emptiness and interdependence.
...Tsongkhapa. I studied them with my
first Lama was one geshe Gelugpa
with very good qualities.
Can you explain please how
is conceived
emptiness and interdependence in
Je Tsongkhapa's system
and in Kagyu and Nyingma system?
Because actually this is one of the main
points.
It is said here that if one does
realize only emptiness
the things are beyond the sessions and
separately one realizes interdependence.
Without unifying them one cannot realize
perfect Buddhahood.
Can you explain some interesting
particulars about it?
With regards, in regards to this text? Yes, with regard to this text I think I can confidently tell you almost no difference. And I am using the word almost just in case.
And I have also mentioned earlier that this is a Tsongkhapa's early work. So please make a note of that if you are a Rangjung Yeshe Institute student. Because that has an implication.
Because I am not being chauvinist here. The Tsongkhapa was a Sakyapa. Yeah. Because he was one of the main disciples of jetsun Rendawa.
So the expressions that are found in these early texts are very identical to the Sakyapa. And again I am using the word identical. Make note of that. So I was wondering if it is possible to go to the Śrāvaka path without losing bodhichitta. Keeping in mind that you at some stage you will arise from being an Arhat and enter the Mahāyāna. Yea. Basically because it is always kind of people are kind of... you want not to lose bodhichitta but still it is kind of difficult. It seems to be much easier to go to the Śrāvaka path. As a Bodhisattva, as a Bodhisattva joining a Mahāyāna path, as a Bodhisattva for the sake of all the sentient beings you can do whatever you like. Śrāvakayāna, Mormon's, Jehovah's witness, whatever you like. That's good news. Thank you.
And, you should... and a... you are also allowed as a Bodhisattva for the benefit of sentient beings. You are also encouraged to hide that you are even a Buddhist.
That could be happening everywhere.
Any more? Hello, Rinpoche, I have a serious question for you. If you really only have two days to life, what are you going to do? What? Me?
I think... I will not know until the last minute of the second day.
I will be so freaked out.
And then? That's it? Any more? Rinpoche, thank you for coming here today. I know we all appreciate it very much. This line that we should be, or those who are unattached to samsara's pleasures, then the next line, strive to make full use of the freedoms and advantages. You spoke of cherishing the abilities that we have. Some of those abilities are to appreciate poetry, music, have orgasm. What is the difference between appreciating such abilities and being attached to samsara's pleasures? Those seem like samsaric pleasures. No, no, I was just saying, we have so much ability. That ability is priceless. Many people don't have that. And we are misusing it. Or, most part, we are not even using it. So instead of... you know like uh...misusing it or wasting it by doing things that we do in the worldly... following the worldly pursuit. Lama Tsongkhapa and many other masters are saying that why not really look inside, contemplate, think about the fault of the samsara, think about the impermanence of life, so on and so forth. That's the good usage.
Many beings don't have the abilities that we have. You know, I think, according to the Mahāyāna, there are Sūtras that say one of the most precious abilities of human beings is understanding the suffering. Understanding the suffering with a sort of an appropriate portion. This is quite an important remark. Like if you are born in a hell realm or hungry ghost, the proportion is so big, you become numb. Somehow human beings, especially those who have precious human body, one of the faculties, you have suffering but you don't have extremely, so to speak. This is also the decision why the Shakyamuni Buddha decided to come manifest as the Shakyamuni Buddha during the time of... you know like...
Kapilavastu, Mangada, all of that. Because... it is... but before that age, the human beings were having too much good time, like God realms.
And um... some of you may think that my mentioning of orgasm and stuff like that may be kind of like just as part of the manner of the speech or whatever. But yeah, it could be. But also from the tantric point of view, it's actually quite important remark because from the tantric point of view, if you don't have or you have not had the ability to experience this ecstasy, you are not a vessel for many of the abhisekas that we receive. So from that point of view, also precious human, this body is so precious. There are many different ways to understand the precious human body, from the Śrāvakayāna way, from Mahāyāna way, from the Vajrayāna way.
So we will continue.
If we don't have the wisdom, even though we may have renunciation mind, and even though we have some kind of aspiration bodhichitta, this will still... you are still not equipped with a weapon to cut the root of the delusion. Therefore, a wise follower of the path must pay attention or put effort in understanding the dependent arising.
I think by now you should know the connection with these three. You know like... If you don't have the renunciation mind, meaning you are still attached to the worldly life, then you will not even begin to long for the nirvana anyway. So therefore renunciation is necessary, renunciation mind. And then, just mere renunciation mind is not going to liberate us. In fact, it could actually bind us painfully. Therefore bodhichitta is necessary. So now here mere, just the renunciation mind and the bodhichitta alone is not capable to uproot the samsara. Therefore, understanding and therefore the cultivation of wisdom is at most important and therefore we need to generate the condition to understand the dependent arising because the dependent arising is the key to cultivate the wisdom. OK, so now we are explaining this briefly more.
And I think I should read the next sentence, stanzas also.
Briefly. When we experience things, we ordinary beings, when we experience things, I don't know, tea, coffee, whatever, music, life, relationship, political system, whatever, when we are experiencing something, there is always a logic, kind of a logic and an order. OK...Plant marigold, marigold comes. Plant mango, mango comes. Only if there is appropriate cause and conditions. Like when you have marigold planted, earth, water, fertilizer, whatever, ploughing, no goats, you know, stomping over it, I don't know, things like that. When all the cause and conditions are together, even if you pray for no marigold, it won't work. Marigold comes. This is the order and there is always an order here, order. Chaotic, of course, but orderly. There is always an order. Now, this is how we, as ordinary human beings, this order is used as tools to prove that things exist. You understand? That's how we approach. But for the Buddhist, for the Mahāyānist, for the Mādhyamika people, the very reason of this order is used to prove that things do not exist. I think this is something that you need to sort of get familiar with before you to understand this, what you call it, this stanzas.
The very reason we use to prove that things are solid, tangible, permanent, things are, what you call it, independent, is the very reason to prove that things do not exist. Things are not permanent, so on and so forth. And this is the magic of Buddhism, especially Mahāyāna. It is incredible. This is, and especially, well of course this is not the right time to talk, but this wealth of magic is what is being galvanized by the tantric people. They love it. They love this game. But this is a kind of, you know, like,
okay, I can't find any other better, you know, examples. I'm overusing this and I will overuse this again and again. Rainbow is what has been used by many in the past, many texts, it always works. Rainbow, and also your reflection of your face in the mirror might do. Cause and conditions are together. Your face, the mirror, clear mirror, your face, looking at it. Of course, if you are not looking at it, we don't know whether there is a reflection of you in the mirror. You can always guess, but that's another phenomenon. Someone can see your reflection in the mirror, that's their phenomenon. Got nothing to do with you. But you, looking at the mirror, again and again, every day, only your face appears. Not a banana, not a mango. And this puzzles you, this makes you confirm that your face exists. Because if occasionally banana appears, or a... you think, oh, wait a minute, maybe I don't have a face. Maybe actually this thing doesn't work. Actually, you know, maybe I'm not here. But that's not the case. Every day there is an order, there is a logic. So this makes us, these are the reasons that we sort of use to prove our own existence. And that's a lot, our existence of everything. Existence of our pain, existence of our pleasure, existence of everything. Our ideas, our values, everything. We try to sort of prove its existence using that rainbow, the same thing. Moisture, rain, I don't know, a certain angle of sun rays, and a person who is observing it. The distance, of course, matters. If you are too close to the rainbow, I don't think you see it. So you have to have appropriate distance. All of that, there's a rainbow. But the rainbow as solid, tangible phenomena does not exist. Now, these people are saying that everything that we experience, everything, even the seemingly most obvious and tangible phenomena such as wasabi, they are as illusory, as, what you call it, intangible, as what you call fleeting, as the rainbow situation here. And there's something so beautiful here, and this is stated clearly at the last stanza.
When you, the color and the order of the rainbow, the color and the shape, you know rainbow always is a standard shape. It doesn't suddenly go a different way. The color and the shape of the rainbow, that order, that rule, that regulation, that order, does not negate the illusory aspect of the rainbow, does it? It does not. At the same time, the illusory aspect of the rainbow does not negate the order, the rules, the color. You know, there's always this sort of, the rainbow always has a standard color, you know that green, the yellow, it actually has a color system.
Illusory, the rainbow is illusion, but that illusory aspect does not negate. So that nothingness does not negate something, that something does not negate that nothing. This magical union of nothingness and somethingness is what needs to be understood. And when you understand that, that is called the wisdom.
What does it help? A lot, a lot. You will then become like the mother who takes your kid to the weekend beach side, build a big castle of sand, participate, cry, laugh, enter the sand castles, go out of the sand castles, pretend of course, but the baby, for them, this is it. And then as a mother, you participate. And when the time comes, you have to give pith instructions to the baby and saying, it's time to go home. And you do it with a lot of skill, a lot of compassion, and you try to distract the baby from the sand castle to some other rattling machine, or I don't know, whatever, doesn't matter, another. And that's called path. Path is a sort of endless, you know, toys that are designed by the great, great toy inventors such as Naropas, Tilopas, oh my goodness, so many, amazing. If you can only read, you know, the conversation, after so many years of beating up and abusing by Tilopa to Naropa, suddenly at the Ganges Bank, site of the Ganges River, Tilopa tapped Naropa's shoulder and said, hey, listen, boy, child, he's called, listen, and then he gave the great Mahamudra teaching that is known as chachen Gangama, the Mahamudra of the Ganges. Just that alone is incredible that we, the children of the Naropas of this age, are so amazed, so much merit that they was such a great toy inventor. It's necessary because,
you know, conditions, cause, happens,
our mind changes,
our value changes, and we need to, yes, we need to lead ourselves, you know, something need to lead us to the right direction. Okay, so,
so this is...
cause and condition and effect, the rule, game of that is never deceiving. Marigold, Marigold. Marigold, not a chili, you understand? That is un-deceiving.
Yet, that non-deceiving law and the rules and the order of cause and condition makes us realize that nothing is tangible and solidly or truly existing. Understanding that is, you know... you know right at the beginning, this text is written for those who wishes to follow the path that makes the Buddhas happy. So this is what he is saying, this is what Buddhas, Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas of the past have enjoyed this path, this magic that we have been talking about.
Appearance, all this appearance, these dependent arising, these are all dependent arising, these are non-deceiving,
yet, they cannot be pinpoint, they cannot be, you know, solidified,
they cannot, you cannot,
many of the students here, you have heard this, you know, like,
you know, like expressions like this, we have no thesis, therefore we are innocent or we are free from faults, yeah, same thing here, basically we are talking about the Mādhyamika in its nutshell.
Until, but you see that there is a, you know, the big mistake for us, generally sentient beings, when we see the appearance, we get robbed by the appearance and forget the illusion. When we see the illusion, we get robbed by the illusion, and we forget the appearance. This is very clearly taught by the Rinchen Longchenpa.
This is so, you know like... we see, we see the emptiness aspect of certain things and then we become nihilist. No karma, no past life, no future life, no Buddha nature, none of the things, even the Buddhist, I have to say, many of you must be aware of this, even many, many Buddhists shy away talking from reincarnation. Many British Buddhists, I should, if you want to narrow down, I will narrow down more if you like. And many so-called Theravadan who, the new Theravadan, and even some of the Mahāyānists, even the Zen, they shy away from, you know, the moment they talk about reincarnation, they try to sort of make the conversation short, or there's another trick they use, it's a Tibetan thing. This is totally wrong. See, they are shying away from the reincarnation because they are swayed by the illusion.
Remember, rainbow does not exist as a tangible entity, but that does not negate the appearance of this beautiful rainbow so that all these Cape Town people can go bananas. It works. It is so beautiful. So many poetries have been written, so many lovers have completely, blindly fallen in love just because of a stupid, pathetic rainbow. So many so-called spiritual people have been inspired by the rainbow shining over the world, she must be special, there was a rainbow, blah, blah, blah, all of that. It has worked like that. Many Buddhists, I'm telling you, even great ones, great beings, they have shied away from talking about the reincarnation. I have heard some great Zen masters said that when we die, we will all get immersed with this atmosphere and become oneness. It's absolutely wrong. If we become immersed to this atmosphere, if that's the only thing we have, then why not go and rob a bank? What are we doing here? We are missing a lot of fun. As long as you are not caught by the authority, we should sell cocaine, we should murder, we should do whatever we like. Karma, reincarnation, this illusion does exist as an illusion. And when it comes to you, it will bear pain. Even though it is an illusion, it is painful.
So, anyway, that's beside the point. OK. I'm getting carried away here a little bit. Because I'm hearing this more and more and I really detest, detest violently,
British Buddhist.
Okay, maybe I must admit there is a little bit of a fault in the Tibetan reincarnation system because Tibetan tulkus in the reincarnation have really corrupted. Basically, it's becoming a bit of a joke. So that may have destroyed the the philosophy of you know... but the philosophy, the scientific reality of reincarnation. Here, this is as simple as this. As a human being, do you believe in tomorrow? Well, if you do, then you should believe in reincarnation because there is absolutely no difference. Never in the whole Sūtras and the Śāstras Buddha have said there is a reincarnation ultimately, never. Ultimately, nothing exists. Relatively, if you negate reincarnation, you might as well join a certain group which I will not mention.
Anyway,
Anyway, a path dweller who gets acquainted with such wisdom again and again and again and again. Then, one day, this practitioner, the moment you experience the appearance or whatever the experience you are having, see, it says,
The moment you see or experience whatever you are experiencing, whatever you are seeing, whatever you are hearing, at that time, if you don't have any more clinging, you see, when the mother sees the sand castle, she doesn't see it as a, you know, oh, castle, I have to now clean, I have to, you know, iron the tablecloth, eh! It's a game. But she does not also blatantly reject or negate when there's the babies. Oh, yeah, yeah, let's go into the castle and all the, you know, the paraphernalia between the mother and the baby happens. Likewise, the moment you see and the moment you experience whatever you are experiencing, when you have that kind of attitude, no clinging, not making a big deal, actually much more than that, then Lama Tsongkhapa says, At that time, that's the end of the analysis of view.
And then you will not, in the last line, then it's at that time, you will not be robbed by extreme view.
That's important in Buddhism. One should not become extremist.
When you see the color of the rainbow and get distracted by the color and the order and its shape, you have become, and forget the illusion aspect, you have become extremist. When you think about the illusory aspect of the word rainbow and forget its beauty and its, you know, the power and its magic, you have become extremist. But when you see the rainbow, you enjoy the rainbow, yet you know what is there or not there, you have accomplished the analysis of the view that is taught by the Buddha.
So, this three principle of path, understanding the points of these, first hearing, then contemplating, and then isolating yourself from all sorts of distractions and generating the diligence, You will then eventually reap the profit or the harvest that will be the source of happiness to oneself and all others. Well, that's um...
so it is written by the Lord Tsongkhapa to advise... I think his nephew or maybe younger brother... anyway,
As, cornered
and lured and commanded by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, I have finished creating this um... this karmic link or debt probably with you. If there is any merit,
we dedicate this to the longevity of all the Bodhisattvas that are known and unknown. Thank you.
RYI: Rinpoche, I would just like to thank you on behalf of everyone at Rangjung Yeshe Institute and all of us here who have received your teachings. They are a great blessing and we hope that you will come back and teach for us in future whenever it is convenient for you. Please, thank you.
DKR: Okay, I will go now. I was told that some people want to do kata and stuff like that. No need. And those things take so much time and just the unfolding and the folding of the katas. I don't know. Okay, thank you.
With regards, in regards to this text? Yes, with regard to this text I think I can confidently tell you almost no difference. And I am using the word almost just in case.
And I have also mentioned earlier that this is a Tsongkhapa's early work. So please make a note of that if you are a Rangjung Yeshe Institute student. Because that has an implication.
Because I am not being chauvinist here. The Tsongkhapa was a Sakyapa. Yeah. Because he was one of the main disciples of jetsun Rendawa.
So the expressions that are found in these early texts are very identical to the Sakyapa. And again I am using the word identical. Make note of that. So I was wondering if it is possible to go to the Śrāvaka path without losing bodhichitta. Keeping in mind that you at some stage you will arise from being an Arhat and enter the Mahāyāna. Yea. Basically because it is always kind of people are kind of... you want not to lose bodhichitta but still it is kind of difficult. It seems to be much easier to go to the Śrāvaka path. As a Bodhisattva, as a Bodhisattva joining a Mahāyāna path, as a Bodhisattva for the sake of all the sentient beings you can do whatever you like. Śrāvakayāna, Mormon's, Jehovah's witness, whatever you like. That's good news. Thank you.
And, you should... and a... you are also allowed as a Bodhisattva for the benefit of sentient beings. You are also encouraged to hide that you are even a Buddhist.
That could be happening everywhere.
Any more? Hello, Rinpoche, I have a serious question for you. If you really only have two days to life, what are you going to do? What? Me?
I think... I will not know until the last minute of the second day.
I will be so freaked out.
And then? That's it? Any more? Rinpoche, thank you for coming here today. I know we all appreciate it very much. This line that we should be, or those who are unattached to samsara's pleasures, then the next line, strive to make full use of the freedoms and advantages. You spoke of cherishing the abilities that we have. Some of those abilities are to appreciate poetry, music, have orgasm. What is the difference between appreciating such abilities and being attached to samsara's pleasures? Those seem like samsaric pleasures. No, no, I was just saying, we have so much ability. That ability is priceless. Many people don't have that. And we are misusing it. Or, most part, we are not even using it. So instead of... you know like uh...misusing it or wasting it by doing things that we do in the worldly... following the worldly pursuit. Lama Tsongkhapa and many other masters are saying that why not really look inside, contemplate, think about the fault of the samsara, think about the impermanence of life, so on and so forth. That's the good usage.
Many beings don't have the abilities that we have. You know, I think, according to the Mahāyāna, there are Sūtras that say one of the most precious abilities of human beings is understanding the suffering. Understanding the suffering with a sort of an appropriate portion. This is quite an important remark. Like if you are born in a hell realm or hungry ghost, the proportion is so big, you become numb. Somehow human beings, especially those who have precious human body, one of the faculties, you have suffering but you don't have extremely, so to speak. This is also the decision why the Shakyamuni Buddha decided to come manifest as the Shakyamuni Buddha during the time of... you know like...
Kapilavastu, Mangada, all of that. Because... it is... but before that age, the human beings were having too much good time, like God realms.
And um... some of you may think that my mentioning of orgasm and stuff like that may be kind of like just as part of the manner of the speech or whatever. But yeah, it could be. But also from the tantric point of view, it's actually quite important remark because from the tantric point of view, if you don't have or you have not had the ability to experience this ecstasy, you are not a vessel for many of the abhisekas that we receive. So from that point of view, also precious human, this body is so precious. There are many different ways to understand the precious human body, from the Śrāvakayāna way, from Mahāyāna way, from the Vajrayāna way.
So we will continue.
If we don't have the wisdom, even though we may have renunciation mind, and even though we have some kind of aspiration bodhichitta, this will still... you are still not equipped with a weapon to cut the root of the delusion. Therefore, a wise follower of the path must pay attention or put effort in understanding the dependent arising.
I think by now you should know the connection with these three. You know like... If you don't have the renunciation mind, meaning you are still attached to the worldly life, then you will not even begin to long for the nirvana anyway. So therefore renunciation is necessary, renunciation mind. And then, just mere renunciation mind is not going to liberate us. In fact, it could actually bind us painfully. Therefore bodhichitta is necessary. So now here mere, just the renunciation mind and the bodhichitta alone is not capable to uproot the samsara. Therefore, understanding and therefore the cultivation of wisdom is at most important and therefore we need to generate the condition to understand the dependent arising because the dependent arising is the key to cultivate the wisdom. OK, so now we are explaining this briefly more.
And I think I should read the next sentence, stanzas also.
Briefly. When we experience things, we ordinary beings, when we experience things, I don't know, tea, coffee, whatever, music, life, relationship, political system, whatever, when we are experiencing something, there is always a logic, kind of a logic and an order. OK...Plant marigold, marigold comes. Plant mango, mango comes. Only if there is appropriate cause and conditions. Like when you have marigold planted, earth, water, fertilizer, whatever, ploughing, no goats, you know, stomping over it, I don't know, things like that. When all the cause and conditions are together, even if you pray for no marigold, it won't work. Marigold comes. This is the order and there is always an order here, order. Chaotic, of course, but orderly. There is always an order. Now, this is how we, as ordinary human beings, this order is used as tools to prove that things exist. You understand? That's how we approach. But for the Buddhist, for the Mahāyānist, for the Mādhyamika people, the very reason of this order is used to prove that things do not exist. I think this is something that you need to sort of get familiar with before you to understand this, what you call it, this stanzas.
The very reason we use to prove that things are solid, tangible, permanent, things are, what you call it, independent, is the very reason to prove that things do not exist. Things are not permanent, so on and so forth. And this is the magic of Buddhism, especially Mahāyāna. It is incredible. This is, and especially, well of course this is not the right time to talk, but this wealth of magic is what is being galvanized by the tantric people. They love it. They love this game. But this is a kind of, you know, like,
okay, I can't find any other better, you know, examples. I'm overusing this and I will overuse this again and again. Rainbow is what has been used by many in the past, many texts, it always works. Rainbow, and also your reflection of your face in the mirror might do. Cause and conditions are together. Your face, the mirror, clear mirror, your face, looking at it. Of course, if you are not looking at it, we don't know whether there is a reflection of you in the mirror. You can always guess, but that's another phenomenon. Someone can see your reflection in the mirror, that's their phenomenon. Got nothing to do with you. But you, looking at the mirror, again and again, every day, only your face appears. Not a banana, not a mango. And this puzzles you, this makes you confirm that your face exists. Because if occasionally banana appears, or a... you think, oh, wait a minute, maybe I don't have a face. Maybe actually this thing doesn't work. Actually, you know, maybe I'm not here. But that's not the case. Every day there is an order, there is a logic. So this makes us, these are the reasons that we sort of use to prove our own existence. And that's a lot, our existence of everything. Existence of our pain, existence of our pleasure, existence of everything. Our ideas, our values, everything. We try to sort of prove its existence using that rainbow, the same thing. Moisture, rain, I don't know, a certain angle of sun rays, and a person who is observing it. The distance, of course, matters. If you are too close to the rainbow, I don't think you see it. So you have to have appropriate distance. All of that, there's a rainbow. But the rainbow as solid, tangible phenomena does not exist. Now, these people are saying that everything that we experience, everything, even the seemingly most obvious and tangible phenomena such as wasabi, they are as illusory, as, what you call it, intangible, as what you call fleeting, as the rainbow situation here. And there's something so beautiful here, and this is stated clearly at the last stanza.
When you, the color and the order of the rainbow, the color and the shape, you know rainbow always is a standard shape. It doesn't suddenly go a different way. The color and the shape of the rainbow, that order, that rule, that regulation, that order, does not negate the illusory aspect of the rainbow, does it? It does not. At the same time, the illusory aspect of the rainbow does not negate the order, the rules, the color. You know, there's always this sort of, the rainbow always has a standard color, you know that green, the yellow, it actually has a color system.
Illusory, the rainbow is illusion, but that illusory aspect does not negate. So that nothingness does not negate something, that something does not negate that nothing. This magical union of nothingness and somethingness is what needs to be understood. And when you understand that, that is called the wisdom.
What does it help? A lot, a lot. You will then become like the mother who takes your kid to the weekend beach side, build a big castle of sand, participate, cry, laugh, enter the sand castles, go out of the sand castles, pretend of course, but the baby, for them, this is it. And then as a mother, you participate. And when the time comes, you have to give pith instructions to the baby and saying, it's time to go home. And you do it with a lot of skill, a lot of compassion, and you try to distract the baby from the sand castle to some other rattling machine, or I don't know, whatever, doesn't matter, another. And that's called path. Path is a sort of endless, you know, toys that are designed by the great, great toy inventors such as Naropas, Tilopas, oh my goodness, so many, amazing. If you can only read, you know, the conversation, after so many years of beating up and abusing by Tilopa to Naropa, suddenly at the Ganges Bank, site of the Ganges River, Tilopa tapped Naropa's shoulder and said, hey, listen, boy, child, he's called, listen, and then he gave the great Mahamudra teaching that is known as chachen Gangama, the Mahamudra of the Ganges. Just that alone is incredible that we, the children of the Naropas of this age, are so amazed, so much merit that they was such a great toy inventor. It's necessary because,
you know, conditions, cause, happens,
our mind changes,
our value changes, and we need to, yes, we need to lead ourselves, you know, something need to lead us to the right direction. Okay, so,
so this is...
cause and condition and effect, the rule, game of that is never deceiving. Marigold, Marigold. Marigold, not a chili, you understand? That is un-deceiving.
Yet, that non-deceiving law and the rules and the order of cause and condition makes us realize that nothing is tangible and solidly or truly existing. Understanding that is, you know... you know right at the beginning, this text is written for those who wishes to follow the path that makes the Buddhas happy. So this is what he is saying, this is what Buddhas, Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas of the past have enjoyed this path, this magic that we have been talking about.
Appearance, all this appearance, these dependent arising, these are all dependent arising, these are non-deceiving,
yet, they cannot be pinpoint, they cannot be, you know, solidified,
they cannot, you cannot,
many of the students here, you have heard this, you know, like,
you know, like expressions like this, we have no thesis, therefore we are innocent or we are free from faults, yeah, same thing here, basically we are talking about the Mādhyamika in its nutshell.
Until, but you see that there is a, you know, the big mistake for us, generally sentient beings, when we see the appearance, we get robbed by the appearance and forget the illusion. When we see the illusion, we get robbed by the illusion, and we forget the appearance. This is very clearly taught by the Rinchen Longchenpa.
This is so, you know like... we see, we see the emptiness aspect of certain things and then we become nihilist. No karma, no past life, no future life, no Buddha nature, none of the things, even the Buddhist, I have to say, many of you must be aware of this, even many, many Buddhists shy away talking from reincarnation. Many British Buddhists, I should, if you want to narrow down, I will narrow down more if you like. And many so-called Theravadan who, the new Theravadan, and even some of the Mahāyānists, even the Zen, they shy away from, you know, the moment they talk about reincarnation, they try to sort of make the conversation short, or there's another trick they use, it's a Tibetan thing. This is totally wrong. See, they are shying away from the reincarnation because they are swayed by the illusion.
Remember, rainbow does not exist as a tangible entity, but that does not negate the appearance of this beautiful rainbow so that all these Cape Town people can go bananas. It works. It is so beautiful. So many poetries have been written, so many lovers have completely, blindly fallen in love just because of a stupid, pathetic rainbow. So many so-called spiritual people have been inspired by the rainbow shining over the world, she must be special, there was a rainbow, blah, blah, blah, all of that. It has worked like that. Many Buddhists, I'm telling you, even great ones, great beings, they have shied away from talking about the reincarnation. I have heard some great Zen masters said that when we die, we will all get immersed with this atmosphere and become oneness. It's absolutely wrong. If we become immersed to this atmosphere, if that's the only thing we have, then why not go and rob a bank? What are we doing here? We are missing a lot of fun. As long as you are not caught by the authority, we should sell cocaine, we should murder, we should do whatever we like. Karma, reincarnation, this illusion does exist as an illusion. And when it comes to you, it will bear pain. Even though it is an illusion, it is painful.
So, anyway, that's beside the point. OK. I'm getting carried away here a little bit. Because I'm hearing this more and more and I really detest, detest violently,
British Buddhist.
Okay, maybe I must admit there is a little bit of a fault in the Tibetan reincarnation system because Tibetan tulkus in the reincarnation have really corrupted. Basically, it's becoming a bit of a joke. So that may have destroyed the the philosophy of you know... but the philosophy, the scientific reality of reincarnation. Here, this is as simple as this. As a human being, do you believe in tomorrow? Well, if you do, then you should believe in reincarnation because there is absolutely no difference. Never in the whole Sūtras and the Śāstras Buddha have said there is a reincarnation ultimately, never. Ultimately, nothing exists. Relatively, if you negate reincarnation, you might as well join a certain group which I will not mention.
Anyway,
Anyway, a path dweller who gets acquainted with such wisdom again and again and again and again. Then, one day, this practitioner, the moment you experience the appearance or whatever the experience you are having, see, it says,
The moment you see or experience whatever you are experiencing, whatever you are seeing, whatever you are hearing, at that time, if you don't have any more clinging, you see, when the mother sees the sand castle, she doesn't see it as a, you know, oh, castle, I have to now clean, I have to, you know, iron the tablecloth, eh! It's a game. But she does not also blatantly reject or negate when there's the babies. Oh, yeah, yeah, let's go into the castle and all the, you know, the paraphernalia between the mother and the baby happens. Likewise, the moment you see and the moment you experience whatever you are experiencing, when you have that kind of attitude, no clinging, not making a big deal, actually much more than that, then Lama Tsongkhapa says, At that time, that's the end of the analysis of view.
And then you will not, in the last line, then it's at that time, you will not be robbed by extreme view.
That's important in Buddhism. One should not become extremist.
When you see the color of the rainbow and get distracted by the color and the order and its shape, you have become, and forget the illusion aspect, you have become extremist. When you think about the illusory aspect of the word rainbow and forget its beauty and its, you know, the power and its magic, you have become extremist. But when you see the rainbow, you enjoy the rainbow, yet you know what is there or not there, you have accomplished the analysis of the view that is taught by the Buddha.
So, this three principle of path, understanding the points of these, first hearing, then contemplating, and then isolating yourself from all sorts of distractions and generating the diligence, You will then eventually reap the profit or the harvest that will be the source of happiness to oneself and all others. Well, that's um...
so it is written by the Lord Tsongkhapa to advise... I think his nephew or maybe younger brother... anyway,
As, cornered
and lured and commanded by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, I have finished creating this um... this karmic link or debt probably with you. If there is any merit,
we dedicate this to the longevity of all the Bodhisattvas that are known and unknown. Thank you.
RYI: Rinpoche, I would just like to thank you on behalf of everyone at Rangjung Yeshe Institute and all of us here who have received your teachings. They are a great blessing and we hope that you will come back and teach for us in future whenever it is convenient for you. Please, thank you.
DKR: Okay, I will go now. I was told that some people want to do kata and stuff like that. No need. And those things take so much time and just the unfolding and the folding of the katas. I don't know. Okay, thank you.
37:51
In one stanza, it's written about
emptiness and interdependence.
...Tsongkhapa. I studied them with my
first Lama was one geshe Gelugpa
with very good qualities.
Can you explain please how
is conceived
emptiness and interdependence in
Je Tsongkhapa's system
and in Kagyu and Nyingma system?
Because actually this is one of the main
points.
It is said here that if one does
realize only emptiness
the things are beyond the sessions and
separately one realizes interdependence.
Without unifying them one cannot realize
perfect Buddhahood.
Can you explain some interesting
particulars about it?
With regards, in regards to this text? Yes, with regard to this text I think I can confidently tell you almost no difference. And I am using the word almost just in case.
And I have also mentioned earlier that this is a Tsongkhapa's early work. So please make a note of that if you are a Rangjung Yeshe Institute student. Because that has an implication.
Because I am not being chauvinist here. The Tsongkhapa was a Sakyapa. Yeah. Because he was one of the main disciples of jetsun Rendawa.
So the expressions that are found in these early texts are very identical to the Sakyapa. And again I am using the word identical. Make note of that. So I was wondering if it is possible to go to the Śrāvaka path without losing bodhichitta. Keeping in mind that you at some stage you will arise from being an Arhat and enter the Mahāyāna. Yea. Basically because it is always kind of people are kind of... you want not to lose bodhichitta but still it is kind of difficult. It seems to be much easier to go to the Śrāvaka path. As a Bodhisattva, as a Bodhisattva joining a Mahāyāna path, as a Bodhisattva for the sake of all the sentient beings you can do whatever you like. Śrāvakayāna, Mormon's, Jehovah's witness, whatever you like. That's good news. Thank you.
And, you should... and a... you are also allowed as a Bodhisattva for the benefit of sentient beings. You are also encouraged to hide that you are even a Buddhist.
That could be happening everywhere.
Any more? Hello, Rinpoche, I have a serious question for you. If you really only have two days to life, what are you going to do? What? Me?
I think... I will not know until the last minute of the second day.
I will be so freaked out.
And then? That's it? Any more? Rinpoche, thank you for coming here today. I know we all appreciate it very much. This line that we should be, or those who are unattached to samsara's pleasures, then the next line, strive to make full use of the freedoms and advantages. You spoke of cherishing the abilities that we have. Some of those abilities are to appreciate poetry, music, have orgasm. What is the difference between appreciating such abilities and being attached to samsara's pleasures? Those seem like samsaric pleasures. No, no, I was just saying, we have so much ability. That ability is priceless. Many people don't have that. And we are misusing it. Or, most part, we are not even using it. So instead of... you know like uh...misusing it or wasting it by doing things that we do in the worldly... following the worldly pursuit. Lama Tsongkhapa and many other masters are saying that why not really look inside, contemplate, think about the fault of the samsara, think about the impermanence of life, so on and so forth. That's the good usage.
Many beings don't have the abilities that we have. You know, I think, according to the Mahāyāna, there are Sūtras that say one of the most precious abilities of human beings is understanding the suffering. Understanding the suffering with a sort of an appropriate portion. This is quite an important remark. Like if you are born in a hell realm or hungry ghost, the proportion is so big, you become numb. Somehow human beings, especially those who have precious human body, one of the faculties, you have suffering but you don't have extremely, so to speak. This is also the decision why the Shakyamuni Buddha decided to come manifest as the Shakyamuni Buddha during the time of... you know like...
Kapilavastu, Mangada, all of that. Because... it is... but before that age, the human beings were having too much good time, like God realms.
And um... some of you may think that my mentioning of orgasm and stuff like that may be kind of like just as part of the manner of the speech or whatever. But yeah, it could be. But also from the tantric point of view, it's actually quite important remark because from the tantric point of view, if you don't have or you have not had the ability to experience this ecstasy, you are not a vessel for many of the abhisekas that we receive. So from that point of view, also precious human, this body is so precious. There are many different ways to understand the precious human body, from the Śrāvakayāna way, from Mahāyāna way, from the Vajrayāna way.
So we will continue.
If we don't have the wisdom, even though we may have renunciation mind, and even though we have some kind of aspiration bodhichitta, this will still... you are still not equipped with a weapon to cut the root of the delusion. Therefore, a wise follower of the path must pay attention or put effort in understanding the dependent arising.
I think by now you should know the connection with these three. You know like... If you don't have the renunciation mind, meaning you are still attached to the worldly life, then you will not even begin to long for the nirvana anyway. So therefore renunciation is necessary, renunciation mind. And then, just mere renunciation mind is not going to liberate us. In fact, it could actually bind us painfully. Therefore bodhichitta is necessary. So now here mere, just the renunciation mind and the bodhichitta alone is not capable to uproot the samsara. Therefore, understanding and therefore the cultivation of wisdom is at most important and therefore we need to generate the condition to understand the dependent arising because the dependent arising is the key to cultivate the wisdom. OK, so now we are explaining this briefly more.
And I think I should read the next sentence, stanzas also.
Briefly. When we experience things, we ordinary beings, when we experience things, I don't know, tea, coffee, whatever, music, life, relationship, political system, whatever, when we are experiencing something, there is always a logic, kind of a logic and an order. OK...Plant marigold, marigold comes. Plant mango, mango comes. Only if there is appropriate cause and conditions. Like when you have marigold planted, earth, water, fertilizer, whatever, ploughing, no goats, you know, stomping over it, I don't know, things like that. When all the cause and conditions are together, even if you pray for no marigold, it won't work. Marigold comes. This is the order and there is always an order here, order. Chaotic, of course, but orderly. There is always an order. Now, this is how we, as ordinary human beings, this order is used as tools to prove that things exist. You understand? That's how we approach. But for the Buddhist, for the Mahāyānist, for the Mādhyamika people, the very reason of this order is used to prove that things do not exist. I think this is something that you need to sort of get familiar with before you to understand this, what you call it, this stanzas.
The very reason we use to prove that things are solid, tangible, permanent, things are, what you call it, independent, is the very reason to prove that things do not exist. Things are not permanent, so on and so forth. And this is the magic of Buddhism, especially Mahāyāna. It is incredible. This is, and especially, well of course this is not the right time to talk, but this wealth of magic is what is being galvanized by the tantric people. They love it. They love this game. But this is a kind of, you know, like,
okay, I can't find any other better, you know, examples. I'm overusing this and I will overuse this again and again. Rainbow is what has been used by many in the past, many texts, it always works. Rainbow, and also your reflection of your face in the mirror might do. Cause and conditions are together. Your face, the mirror, clear mirror, your face, looking at it. Of course, if you are not looking at it, we don't know whether there is a reflection of you in the mirror. You can always guess, but that's another phenomenon. Someone can see your reflection in the mirror, that's their phenomenon. Got nothing to do with you. But you, looking at the mirror, again and again, every day, only your face appears. Not a banana, not a mango. And this puzzles you, this makes you confirm that your face exists. Because if occasionally banana appears, or a... you think, oh, wait a minute, maybe I don't have a face. Maybe actually this thing doesn't work. Actually, you know, maybe I'm not here. But that's not the case. Every day there is an order, there is a logic. So this makes us, these are the reasons that we sort of use to prove our own existence. And that's a lot, our existence of everything. Existence of our pain, existence of our pleasure, existence of everything. Our ideas, our values, everything. We try to sort of prove its existence using that rainbow, the same thing. Moisture, rain, I don't know, a certain angle of sun rays, and a person who is observing it. The distance, of course, matters. If you are too close to the rainbow, I don't think you see it. So you have to have appropriate distance. All of that, there's a rainbow. But the rainbow as solid, tangible phenomena does not exist. Now, these people are saying that everything that we experience, everything, even the seemingly most obvious and tangible phenomena such as wasabi, they are as illusory, as, what you call it, intangible, as what you call fleeting, as the rainbow situation here. And there's something so beautiful here, and this is stated clearly at the last stanza.
When you, the color and the order of the rainbow, the color and the shape, you know rainbow always is a standard shape. It doesn't suddenly go a different way. The color and the shape of the rainbow, that order, that rule, that regulation, that order, does not negate the illusory aspect of the rainbow, does it? It does not. At the same time, the illusory aspect of the rainbow does not negate the order, the rules, the color. You know, there's always this sort of, the rainbow always has a standard color, you know that green, the yellow, it actually has a color system.
Illusory, the rainbow is illusion, but that illusory aspect does not negate. So that nothingness does not negate something, that something does not negate that nothing. This magical union of nothingness and somethingness is what needs to be understood. And when you understand that, that is called the wisdom.
What does it help? A lot, a lot. You will then become like the mother who takes your kid to the weekend beach side, build a big castle of sand, participate, cry, laugh, enter the sand castles, go out of the sand castles, pretend of course, but the baby, for them, this is it. And then as a mother, you participate. And when the time comes, you have to give pith instructions to the baby and saying, it's time to go home. And you do it with a lot of skill, a lot of compassion, and you try to distract the baby from the sand castle to some other rattling machine, or I don't know, whatever, doesn't matter, another. And that's called path. Path is a sort of endless, you know, toys that are designed by the great, great toy inventors such as Naropas, Tilopas, oh my goodness, so many, amazing. If you can only read, you know, the conversation, after so many years of beating up and abusing by Tilopa to Naropa, suddenly at the Ganges Bank, site of the Ganges River, Tilopa tapped Naropa's shoulder and said, hey, listen, boy, child, he's called, listen, and then he gave the great Mahamudra teaching that is known as chachen Gangama, the Mahamudra of the Ganges. Just that alone is incredible that we, the children of the Naropas of this age, are so amazed, so much merit that they was such a great toy inventor. It's necessary because,
you know, conditions, cause, happens,
our mind changes,
our value changes, and we need to, yes, we need to lead ourselves, you know, something need to lead us to the right direction. Okay, so,
so this is...
cause and condition and effect, the rule, game of that is never deceiving. Marigold, Marigold. Marigold, not a chili, you understand? That is un-deceiving.
Yet, that non-deceiving law and the rules and the order of cause and condition makes us realize that nothing is tangible and solidly or truly existing. Understanding that is, you know... you know right at the beginning, this text is written for those who wishes to follow the path that makes the Buddhas happy. So this is what he is saying, this is what Buddhas, Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas of the past have enjoyed this path, this magic that we have been talking about.
Appearance, all this appearance, these dependent arising, these are all dependent arising, these are non-deceiving,
yet, they cannot be pinpoint, they cannot be, you know, solidified,
they cannot, you cannot,
many of the students here, you have heard this, you know, like,
you know, like expressions like this, we have no thesis, therefore we are innocent or we are free from faults, yeah, same thing here, basically we are talking about the Mādhyamika in its nutshell.
Until, but you see that there is a, you know, the big mistake for us, generally sentient beings, when we see the appearance, we get robbed by the appearance and forget the illusion. When we see the illusion, we get robbed by the illusion, and we forget the appearance. This is very clearly taught by the Rinchen Longchenpa.
This is so, you know like... we see, we see the emptiness aspect of certain things and then we become nihilist. No karma, no past life, no future life, no Buddha nature, none of the things, even the Buddhist, I have to say, many of you must be aware of this, even many, many Buddhists shy away talking from reincarnation. Many British Buddhists, I should, if you want to narrow down, I will narrow down more if you like. And many so-called Theravadan who, the new Theravadan, and even some of the Mahāyānists, even the Zen, they shy away from, you know, the moment they talk about reincarnation, they try to sort of make the conversation short, or there's another trick they use, it's a Tibetan thing. This is totally wrong. See, they are shying away from the reincarnation because they are swayed by the illusion.
Remember, rainbow does not exist as a tangible entity, but that does not negate the appearance of this beautiful rainbow so that all these Cape Town people can go bananas. It works. It is so beautiful. So many poetries have been written, so many lovers have completely, blindly fallen in love just because of a stupid, pathetic rainbow. So many so-called spiritual people have been inspired by the rainbow shining over the world, she must be special, there was a rainbow, blah, blah, blah, all of that. It has worked like that. Many Buddhists, I'm telling you, even great ones, great beings, they have shied away from talking about the reincarnation. I have heard some great Zen masters said that when we die, we will all get immersed with this atmosphere and become oneness. It's absolutely wrong. If we become immersed to this atmosphere, if that's the only thing we have, then why not go and rob a bank? What are we doing here? We are missing a lot of fun. As long as you are not caught by the authority, we should sell cocaine, we should murder, we should do whatever we like. Karma, reincarnation, this illusion does exist as an illusion. And when it comes to you, it will bear pain. Even though it is an illusion, it is painful.
So, anyway, that's beside the point. OK. I'm getting carried away here a little bit. Because I'm hearing this more and more and I really detest, detest violently,
British Buddhist.
Okay, maybe I must admit there is a little bit of a fault in the Tibetan reincarnation system because Tibetan tulkus in the reincarnation have really corrupted. Basically, it's becoming a bit of a joke. So that may have destroyed the the philosophy of you know... but the philosophy, the scientific reality of reincarnation. Here, this is as simple as this. As a human being, do you believe in tomorrow? Well, if you do, then you should believe in reincarnation because there is absolutely no difference. Never in the whole Sūtras and the Śāstras Buddha have said there is a reincarnation ultimately, never. Ultimately, nothing exists. Relatively, if you negate reincarnation, you might as well join a certain group which I will not mention.
Anyway,
Anyway, a path dweller who gets acquainted with such wisdom again and again and again and again. Then, one day, this practitioner, the moment you experience the appearance or whatever the experience you are having, see, it says,
The moment you see or experience whatever you are experiencing, whatever you are seeing, whatever you are hearing, at that time, if you don't have any more clinging, you see, when the mother sees the sand castle, she doesn't see it as a, you know, oh, castle, I have to now clean, I have to, you know, iron the tablecloth, eh! It's a game. But she does not also blatantly reject or negate when there's the babies. Oh, yeah, yeah, let's go into the castle and all the, you know, the paraphernalia between the mother and the baby happens. Likewise, the moment you see and the moment you experience whatever you are experiencing, when you have that kind of attitude, no clinging, not making a big deal, actually much more than that, then Lama Tsongkhapa says, At that time, that's the end of the analysis of view.
And then you will not, in the last line, then it's at that time, you will not be robbed by extreme view.
That's important in Buddhism. One should not become extremist.
When you see the color of the rainbow and get distracted by the color and the order and its shape, you have become, and forget the illusion aspect, you have become extremist. When you think about the illusory aspect of the word rainbow and forget its beauty and its, you know, the power and its magic, you have become extremist. But when you see the rainbow, you enjoy the rainbow, yet you know what is there or not there, you have accomplished the analysis of the view that is taught by the Buddha.
So, this three principle of path, understanding the points of these, first hearing, then contemplating, and then isolating yourself from all sorts of distractions and generating the diligence, You will then eventually reap the profit or the harvest that will be the source of happiness to oneself and all others. Well, that's um...
so it is written by the Lord Tsongkhapa to advise... I think his nephew or maybe younger brother... anyway,
As, cornered
and lured and commanded by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, I have finished creating this um... this karmic link or debt probably with you. If there is any merit,
we dedicate this to the longevity of all the Bodhisattvas that are known and unknown. Thank you.
RYI: Rinpoche, I would just like to thank you on behalf of everyone at Rangjung Yeshe Institute and all of us here who have received your teachings. They are a great blessing and we hope that you will come back and teach for us in future whenever it is convenient for you. Please, thank you.
DKR: Okay, I will go now. I was told that some people want to do kata and stuff like that. No need. And those things take so much time and just the unfolding and the folding of the katas. I don't know. Okay, thank you.
With regards, in regards to this text? Yes, with regard to this text I think I can confidently tell you almost no difference. And I am using the word almost just in case.
And I have also mentioned earlier that this is a Tsongkhapa's early work. So please make a note of that if you are a Rangjung Yeshe Institute student. Because that has an implication.
Because I am not being chauvinist here. The Tsongkhapa was a Sakyapa. Yeah. Because he was one of the main disciples of jetsun Rendawa.
So the expressions that are found in these early texts are very identical to the Sakyapa. And again I am using the word identical. Make note of that. So I was wondering if it is possible to go to the Śrāvaka path without losing bodhichitta. Keeping in mind that you at some stage you will arise from being an Arhat and enter the Mahāyāna. Yea. Basically because it is always kind of people are kind of... you want not to lose bodhichitta but still it is kind of difficult. It seems to be much easier to go to the Śrāvaka path. As a Bodhisattva, as a Bodhisattva joining a Mahāyāna path, as a Bodhisattva for the sake of all the sentient beings you can do whatever you like. Śrāvakayāna, Mormon's, Jehovah's witness, whatever you like. That's good news. Thank you.
And, you should... and a... you are also allowed as a Bodhisattva for the benefit of sentient beings. You are also encouraged to hide that you are even a Buddhist.
That could be happening everywhere.
Any more? Hello, Rinpoche, I have a serious question for you. If you really only have two days to life, what are you going to do? What? Me?
I think... I will not know until the last minute of the second day.
I will be so freaked out.
And then? That's it? Any more? Rinpoche, thank you for coming here today. I know we all appreciate it very much. This line that we should be, or those who are unattached to samsara's pleasures, then the next line, strive to make full use of the freedoms and advantages. You spoke of cherishing the abilities that we have. Some of those abilities are to appreciate poetry, music, have orgasm. What is the difference between appreciating such abilities and being attached to samsara's pleasures? Those seem like samsaric pleasures. No, no, I was just saying, we have so much ability. That ability is priceless. Many people don't have that. And we are misusing it. Or, most part, we are not even using it. So instead of... you know like uh...misusing it or wasting it by doing things that we do in the worldly... following the worldly pursuit. Lama Tsongkhapa and many other masters are saying that why not really look inside, contemplate, think about the fault of the samsara, think about the impermanence of life, so on and so forth. That's the good usage.
Many beings don't have the abilities that we have. You know, I think, according to the Mahāyāna, there are Sūtras that say one of the most precious abilities of human beings is understanding the suffering. Understanding the suffering with a sort of an appropriate portion. This is quite an important remark. Like if you are born in a hell realm or hungry ghost, the proportion is so big, you become numb. Somehow human beings, especially those who have precious human body, one of the faculties, you have suffering but you don't have extremely, so to speak. This is also the decision why the Shakyamuni Buddha decided to come manifest as the Shakyamuni Buddha during the time of... you know like...
Kapilavastu, Mangada, all of that. Because... it is... but before that age, the human beings were having too much good time, like God realms.
And um... some of you may think that my mentioning of orgasm and stuff like that may be kind of like just as part of the manner of the speech or whatever. But yeah, it could be. But also from the tantric point of view, it's actually quite important remark because from the tantric point of view, if you don't have or you have not had the ability to experience this ecstasy, you are not a vessel for many of the abhisekas that we receive. So from that point of view, also precious human, this body is so precious. There are many different ways to understand the precious human body, from the Śrāvakayāna way, from Mahāyāna way, from the Vajrayāna way.
So we will continue.
If we don't have the wisdom, even though we may have renunciation mind, and even though we have some kind of aspiration bodhichitta, this will still... you are still not equipped with a weapon to cut the root of the delusion. Therefore, a wise follower of the path must pay attention or put effort in understanding the dependent arising.
I think by now you should know the connection with these three. You know like... If you don't have the renunciation mind, meaning you are still attached to the worldly life, then you will not even begin to long for the nirvana anyway. So therefore renunciation is necessary, renunciation mind. And then, just mere renunciation mind is not going to liberate us. In fact, it could actually bind us painfully. Therefore bodhichitta is necessary. So now here mere, just the renunciation mind and the bodhichitta alone is not capable to uproot the samsara. Therefore, understanding and therefore the cultivation of wisdom is at most important and therefore we need to generate the condition to understand the dependent arising because the dependent arising is the key to cultivate the wisdom. OK, so now we are explaining this briefly more.
And I think I should read the next sentence, stanzas also.
Briefly. When we experience things, we ordinary beings, when we experience things, I don't know, tea, coffee, whatever, music, life, relationship, political system, whatever, when we are experiencing something, there is always a logic, kind of a logic and an order. OK...Plant marigold, marigold comes. Plant mango, mango comes. Only if there is appropriate cause and conditions. Like when you have marigold planted, earth, water, fertilizer, whatever, ploughing, no goats, you know, stomping over it, I don't know, things like that. When all the cause and conditions are together, even if you pray for no marigold, it won't work. Marigold comes. This is the order and there is always an order here, order. Chaotic, of course, but orderly. There is always an order. Now, this is how we, as ordinary human beings, this order is used as tools to prove that things exist. You understand? That's how we approach. But for the Buddhist, for the Mahāyānist, for the Mādhyamika people, the very reason of this order is used to prove that things do not exist. I think this is something that you need to sort of get familiar with before you to understand this, what you call it, this stanzas.
The very reason we use to prove that things are solid, tangible, permanent, things are, what you call it, independent, is the very reason to prove that things do not exist. Things are not permanent, so on and so forth. And this is the magic of Buddhism, especially Mahāyāna. It is incredible. This is, and especially, well of course this is not the right time to talk, but this wealth of magic is what is being galvanized by the tantric people. They love it. They love this game. But this is a kind of, you know, like,
okay, I can't find any other better, you know, examples. I'm overusing this and I will overuse this again and again. Rainbow is what has been used by many in the past, many texts, it always works. Rainbow, and also your reflection of your face in the mirror might do. Cause and conditions are together. Your face, the mirror, clear mirror, your face, looking at it. Of course, if you are not looking at it, we don't know whether there is a reflection of you in the mirror. You can always guess, but that's another phenomenon. Someone can see your reflection in the mirror, that's their phenomenon. Got nothing to do with you. But you, looking at the mirror, again and again, every day, only your face appears. Not a banana, not a mango. And this puzzles you, this makes you confirm that your face exists. Because if occasionally banana appears, or a... you think, oh, wait a minute, maybe I don't have a face. Maybe actually this thing doesn't work. Actually, you know, maybe I'm not here. But that's not the case. Every day there is an order, there is a logic. So this makes us, these are the reasons that we sort of use to prove our own existence. And that's a lot, our existence of everything. Existence of our pain, existence of our pleasure, existence of everything. Our ideas, our values, everything. We try to sort of prove its existence using that rainbow, the same thing. Moisture, rain, I don't know, a certain angle of sun rays, and a person who is observing it. The distance, of course, matters. If you are too close to the rainbow, I don't think you see it. So you have to have appropriate distance. All of that, there's a rainbow. But the rainbow as solid, tangible phenomena does not exist. Now, these people are saying that everything that we experience, everything, even the seemingly most obvious and tangible phenomena such as wasabi, they are as illusory, as, what you call it, intangible, as what you call fleeting, as the rainbow situation here. And there's something so beautiful here, and this is stated clearly at the last stanza.
When you, the color and the order of the rainbow, the color and the shape, you know rainbow always is a standard shape. It doesn't suddenly go a different way. The color and the shape of the rainbow, that order, that rule, that regulation, that order, does not negate the illusory aspect of the rainbow, does it? It does not. At the same time, the illusory aspect of the rainbow does not negate the order, the rules, the color. You know, there's always this sort of, the rainbow always has a standard color, you know that green, the yellow, it actually has a color system.
Illusory, the rainbow is illusion, but that illusory aspect does not negate. So that nothingness does not negate something, that something does not negate that nothing. This magical union of nothingness and somethingness is what needs to be understood. And when you understand that, that is called the wisdom.
What does it help? A lot, a lot. You will then become like the mother who takes your kid to the weekend beach side, build a big castle of sand, participate, cry, laugh, enter the sand castles, go out of the sand castles, pretend of course, but the baby, for them, this is it. And then as a mother, you participate. And when the time comes, you have to give pith instructions to the baby and saying, it's time to go home. And you do it with a lot of skill, a lot of compassion, and you try to distract the baby from the sand castle to some other rattling machine, or I don't know, whatever, doesn't matter, another. And that's called path. Path is a sort of endless, you know, toys that are designed by the great, great toy inventors such as Naropas, Tilopas, oh my goodness, so many, amazing. If you can only read, you know, the conversation, after so many years of beating up and abusing by Tilopa to Naropa, suddenly at the Ganges Bank, site of the Ganges River, Tilopa tapped Naropa's shoulder and said, hey, listen, boy, child, he's called, listen, and then he gave the great Mahamudra teaching that is known as chachen Gangama, the Mahamudra of the Ganges. Just that alone is incredible that we, the children of the Naropas of this age, are so amazed, so much merit that they was such a great toy inventor. It's necessary because,
you know, conditions, cause, happens,
our mind changes,
our value changes, and we need to, yes, we need to lead ourselves, you know, something need to lead us to the right direction. Okay, so,
so this is...
cause and condition and effect, the rule, game of that is never deceiving. Marigold, Marigold. Marigold, not a chili, you understand? That is un-deceiving.
Yet, that non-deceiving law and the rules and the order of cause and condition makes us realize that nothing is tangible and solidly or truly existing. Understanding that is, you know... you know right at the beginning, this text is written for those who wishes to follow the path that makes the Buddhas happy. So this is what he is saying, this is what Buddhas, Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas of the past have enjoyed this path, this magic that we have been talking about.
Appearance, all this appearance, these dependent arising, these are all dependent arising, these are non-deceiving,
yet, they cannot be pinpoint, they cannot be, you know, solidified,
they cannot, you cannot,
many of the students here, you have heard this, you know, like,
you know, like expressions like this, we have no thesis, therefore we are innocent or we are free from faults, yeah, same thing here, basically we are talking about the Mādhyamika in its nutshell.
Until, but you see that there is a, you know, the big mistake for us, generally sentient beings, when we see the appearance, we get robbed by the appearance and forget the illusion. When we see the illusion, we get robbed by the illusion, and we forget the appearance. This is very clearly taught by the Rinchen Longchenpa.
This is so, you know like... we see, we see the emptiness aspect of certain things and then we become nihilist. No karma, no past life, no future life, no Buddha nature, none of the things, even the Buddhist, I have to say, many of you must be aware of this, even many, many Buddhists shy away talking from reincarnation. Many British Buddhists, I should, if you want to narrow down, I will narrow down more if you like. And many so-called Theravadan who, the new Theravadan, and even some of the Mahāyānists, even the Zen, they shy away from, you know, the moment they talk about reincarnation, they try to sort of make the conversation short, or there's another trick they use, it's a Tibetan thing. This is totally wrong. See, they are shying away from the reincarnation because they are swayed by the illusion.
Remember, rainbow does not exist as a tangible entity, but that does not negate the appearance of this beautiful rainbow so that all these Cape Town people can go bananas. It works. It is so beautiful. So many poetries have been written, so many lovers have completely, blindly fallen in love just because of a stupid, pathetic rainbow. So many so-called spiritual people have been inspired by the rainbow shining over the world, she must be special, there was a rainbow, blah, blah, blah, all of that. It has worked like that. Many Buddhists, I'm telling you, even great ones, great beings, they have shied away from talking about the reincarnation. I have heard some great Zen masters said that when we die, we will all get immersed with this atmosphere and become oneness. It's absolutely wrong. If we become immersed to this atmosphere, if that's the only thing we have, then why not go and rob a bank? What are we doing here? We are missing a lot of fun. As long as you are not caught by the authority, we should sell cocaine, we should murder, we should do whatever we like. Karma, reincarnation, this illusion does exist as an illusion. And when it comes to you, it will bear pain. Even though it is an illusion, it is painful.
So, anyway, that's beside the point. OK. I'm getting carried away here a little bit. Because I'm hearing this more and more and I really detest, detest violently,
British Buddhist.
Okay, maybe I must admit there is a little bit of a fault in the Tibetan reincarnation system because Tibetan tulkus in the reincarnation have really corrupted. Basically, it's becoming a bit of a joke. So that may have destroyed the the philosophy of you know... but the philosophy, the scientific reality of reincarnation. Here, this is as simple as this. As a human being, do you believe in tomorrow? Well, if you do, then you should believe in reincarnation because there is absolutely no difference. Never in the whole Sūtras and the Śāstras Buddha have said there is a reincarnation ultimately, never. Ultimately, nothing exists. Relatively, if you negate reincarnation, you might as well join a certain group which I will not mention.
Anyway,
Anyway, a path dweller who gets acquainted with such wisdom again and again and again and again. Then, one day, this practitioner, the moment you experience the appearance or whatever the experience you are having, see, it says,
The moment you see or experience whatever you are experiencing, whatever you are seeing, whatever you are hearing, at that time, if you don't have any more clinging, you see, when the mother sees the sand castle, she doesn't see it as a, you know, oh, castle, I have to now clean, I have to, you know, iron the tablecloth, eh! It's a game. But she does not also blatantly reject or negate when there's the babies. Oh, yeah, yeah, let's go into the castle and all the, you know, the paraphernalia between the mother and the baby happens. Likewise, the moment you see and the moment you experience whatever you are experiencing, when you have that kind of attitude, no clinging, not making a big deal, actually much more than that, then Lama Tsongkhapa says, At that time, that's the end of the analysis of view.
And then you will not, in the last line, then it's at that time, you will not be robbed by extreme view.
That's important in Buddhism. One should not become extremist.
When you see the color of the rainbow and get distracted by the color and the order and its shape, you have become, and forget the illusion aspect, you have become extremist. When you think about the illusory aspect of the word rainbow and forget its beauty and its, you know, the power and its magic, you have become extremist. But when you see the rainbow, you enjoy the rainbow, yet you know what is there or not there, you have accomplished the analysis of the view that is taught by the Buddha.
So, this three principle of path, understanding the points of these, first hearing, then contemplating, and then isolating yourself from all sorts of distractions and generating the diligence, You will then eventually reap the profit or the harvest that will be the source of happiness to oneself and all others. Well, that's um...
so it is written by the Lord Tsongkhapa to advise... I think his nephew or maybe younger brother... anyway,
As, cornered
and lured and commanded by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, I have finished creating this um... this karmic link or debt probably with you. If there is any merit,
we dedicate this to the longevity of all the Bodhisattvas that are known and unknown. Thank you.
RYI: Rinpoche, I would just like to thank you on behalf of everyone at Rangjung Yeshe Institute and all of us here who have received your teachings. They are a great blessing and we hope that you will come back and teach for us in future whenever it is convenient for you. Please, thank you.
DKR: Okay, I will go now. I was told that some people want to do kata and stuff like that. No need. And those things take so much time and just the unfolding and the folding of the katas. I don't know. Okay, thank you.
