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Discovering Buddhism

Wisdom of Emptiness

Most of the time life appears to us

to be completely solid and permanent.

We believe this fixed view of our bodies, our thoughts,

and the projections of our lives and the world around us is true.

According to Buddhism,

this habit of misapprehending everything we experience

is the root of all our problems.

In particular, when we think that 'I' am real, solid, and unchanging,

we put all our energy into defending the happiness of this 'I'

at the cost of everything and everyone else.

The Buddha realized this is the greatest ignorance we suffer from

and with his earth-shaking teachings on emptiness he said,

'Wait a minute - the world isn't as concrete as you think.

Why don't you analyze what you call 'reality' very, very carefully,

and check to see if it really exists the way you think.'

The truth is nothing exists as it appears and by realizing this

you will create a happier situation for yourself and for others.

This wisdom that realizes emptiness is extraordinary

and has the power to free us at any moment.

MOTIVATION

The Buddha's wisdom teachings on emptiness are complex

and difficult teachings, not easy to understand.

It's particularly important that one prepares the mind

before listening to these teachings with an appropriate motivation

that opens the mind to being able to understand and absorb them.

This is similar to tilling the soil of a garden

in order to be able to plant the seeds of enlightenment.

Therefore now in your mind make a strong determination,

generate a strong motivation, to be able to traverse the spiritual path

and to understand the Buddhist teachings on emptiness

in order to free yourself from the bonds of samsara

and to reach enlightenment in order to be able

to also free all suffering living beings.

TEACHERS

Born in Nepal in 1946, Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama.

Rinpoche began Kopan Monastery with his heart teacher Lama Thubten Yeshe.

Together they have made traditional Buddhist education available to thousands of western students since 1972.

Rinpoche is now the Spiritual Director of FPMT International, which is comprised of 136 centers worldwide.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche devotes himself tirelessly for the benefit of countless beings.

So it's a very important point to release our confused mind,

or the confusion, to cut our hallucinations.

The biggest suffering in our life is the hallucination

we have had from the beginningless samsaric rebirth.

This hallucination of true existence,

which is apprehended by ignorance, is the king of the delusion.

The ignorance is the mind not knowing the ultimate nature of phenomena.

Such as the mind not knowing the ultimate nature of the I,

which is the root of samsara.

So therefore, this is a very essential point to know what is false,

and what is the truth in our life.

So in order to realize emptiness,

first you have to recognize the object to be refuted, the false I.

You have to recognize the false I, which is false.

The root of the ignorance is not knowing, not knowing what is I.

Even though we think I twenty-four hours,

we talk, when we talk always with I.

Like we chant Om mani padme hung ,

and we think I twenty-four hours, we say and we think I,

but do not know what is I.

We fight for the I, we fight for this I and we kill other people;

for this I we even have to kill people and other sentient beings.

We create so many harms;

killing, stealing, sexual misconduct and telling lies.

We give so much harm to others for this I,

to protect this I, for the happiness of this I, to give happiness to this I.

But we do not know, but no idea what is the I is, no knowledge of what is I.

So this false I which is the inherently existent I,

the I that which appears to you even though it's merely labeled,

but appears to you not merely labeled.

So this is there, this appearance is there,

from beginningless rebirth up to now,

but you never recognized that it's false.

Born in Sweden, Venerable Karin Valham met the Dharma at Kopan Monastery in 1974 where she ordained.

For over twenty years she has inspired thousands of westerners with her teachings on Buddhism at Kopan.

I suppose the ultimate analysis to overcome attachment,

is to analyze the nature of I.

When we analyze the nature of self, or the persons we are attached to,

we can't find, we can't pinpoint

the real person there that we are attached to.

So we end up with a sense of emptiness.

Not the ordinary emptiness, like an empty room,

but just the emptiness of not being able to find that object of attachment.

That doesn't exist there in that person, the way we perceive it.

So when we experience emptiness again

the mind becomes very happy and relaxed,

and the same when we analyze our self.

If we are in the state of attachment and greed for something,

then one can analyze where is this greedy me.

Where does this greedy me exist? How does it exist?

So then you try to look - is it my body? Is it my mind?

You try to investigate, where is this greed in me.

Is it oneness with my mind? Am I greed? Am I in the nature of greed?

It can't be because then you have to be greedy all the time.

So I am not my greed, my greed is just a moment, a state of my mind.

So I am not my greed, my greed is just a moment, a state of my mind.

So who is greedy?

You know when you research inside,

you can't pinpoint this

independent self that is sitting there somewhere being greedy.

It's completely not there.

Again, emptiness, space, makes you feel happy.

Suddenly, greed is gone because there is nobody there being greedy.

The emptiness is the ultimate method to eliminate negative states of mind,

because they are based on a false view.

When you research the correct view of the self, negativity goes.

Definitely goes, it can't be, it has no foundation.

It drops down, and wisdom comes.

You know with wisdom these negative states of mind

they doesn't have a chance.

And with wisdom you feel satisfied, it satisfies you, it makes you content.

You feel good inside.

That's the ultimate solution to attachment,

and to negative states of mind.

And this will all have to be learned in meditation.

So its all part of a meditation practice.

But don't think that there are no methods to over come negativity.

In Buddhism, plenty of methods,

it's just a matter of we need to practice it.

A native Australian, Venerable Robina Courtin has practiced as a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition for twenty-six years.

She is well-known worldwide for her dynamic teaching style and depth of knowledge.

She's been the editorial director of both Wisdom Publications and Mandala, a Buddhist magazine.

Today she runs the Liberation Prison Project, which provides support for Buddhist practitioners in prison in the USA and Australia.

According to Buddhism, in general,

you have the conventional mode of how things exist,

which is the Davidness of David and the carpetness of carpet,

and the cupness of cups and like that.

They've all got their own distinct conventional mode of existing,

and they're all kind of in that, within that context, exist.

Conventionally speaking.

Then you have the ultimate or final mode of existence of things.

And that's the same for everything.

So, ultimately, Buddha would say,

you cannot find, inherent, self-existent glasses-ness.

Glasses are empty of being inherent,

findable, real, in and of themselves, glasses-ness.

Which is how we grasp at everything,

Buddha would say,

due to this fundamental ignorance in our mind.

It is empty of that, and empty in this sense, simply means lacking.

Lacking of that type of existence,

but the ignorance within our mind,

Buddha is saying,

which is completely pervasive, absolutely clings to that, believes it,

sees it, a billion percent unceasingly.

And it's a total, big, fat, rotten lie.

And it's the mother of all lies: the cause of all suffering,

the cause of universes finally, the cause of everything.

Buddha says, it is empty of all of this,

ultimately you cannot find glasses,

ultimately there is no glasses from it's own side,

there's no David from it's own side,

there's no carpet from it's own side,

there's no ca-ca from it's own side.

The emptiness of everything,

the emptiness of ca-ca,

and the emptiness of you is the same.

All are empty or lack an ultimate reality,

a findable inherent-ness.

Conventionally, nevertheless, we indeed can point to glasses.

Not a problem.

There are glasses there and it would be very stupid to call it a cup,

you'd be in trouble, your coffee would burn you.

Right now there's this huge contradiction,

and we hear about, oh, there are glasses, grasp.

No, sorry there are no glasses,

oh my god, chuck them out with the bath water.

We got too far; we have these two extreme ways of seeing.

So we either cling to everything as being,

having an inherent eternalistic nature.

Now interestingly, philosophically speaking,

Buddhism would say,

that Christianity and Hinduism and Islam have this view.

Just talking philosophically, not being sectarian here.

ok? Have the view of real, solid, self-existent something,

real solid, self-existent out there God,

real, solid, self-existent soul.

Buddhism would assert that it's not possible to be this.

Buddhism would argue with a Christian and say

you've got the wrong end of the stick.

Yes, there's God, but Buddha.

But it's interdependent, but everyone can become it,

like I was saying before.

It's just a philosophical discussion.

And that the view we had of self-existent God out there,

and soul and absolute and permanent and inherent,

is a product of this fundamental ignorance that posits that,

therefore doesn't see this.

So these two extreme views we have,

either the nihilistic one, chuck the baby out with the bath water,

or grasp.

And these are the instinctive ways that our mind thinks now.

So the, what Buddha says is,

there's this view that, ultimately, there is no glasses.

But, the more you understand how there is glasses conventionally,

in it's appropriate way, the more you get that it's empty.

And the more you realize that there is no glasses from it's own side;

the more it helps you understand the conventional.

The short hand for conventional reality is 'dependent arising'.

That means, it's a dependent arising.

It arose in dependence upon causes and conditions.

Now, karma is causes and conditions, for me.

Right now, because of ignorance in my mind,

I cling to and believe in a self-existent, real, solid, out here,

schizophrenic separate, made by somebody else,

hopeless victim, me-ness.

Which gives rise to attachment and anger and pride and jealousy

and all the suffering, right?

All coming from this fundamental ignorance,

this fundamental misconception, that is the exact opposite of the truth,

that I'm a completely interdependent scenario.

So because everything is empty, there can be even karma.

Therefore, there is no real glasses.

Therefore, there is no real Robina,

self-existent, solid, poor victim mean, nasty, horrible David.

They are the creations of ignorance.

Professor Janice Willis is a scholar and teacher of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

She met the Dharma in 1967 and has been practicing and teaching for 35 years.

She has been published widely in the areas of Buddhist philosophy, sacred biography, women in Buddhism and Buddhism and race.

Her latest project is a memoir entitled Dreaming Me: An African American Woman’s Spiritual Journey.

The way suffering ends is it ends through insight

And it's the insight that comprehends exactly how it is

that the self actually exists.

It's the insight that shows us, that tells us directly,

that this self is impermanent, exists in dependence on other things.

Not independently and all in it's own right.

And so , with that,

Having gained insight about how we ourselves exist,

we can put a complete end,

we can burst asunder the ignorance that was the root cause of samsara.

Therefore gaining wisdom is equivalent with gaining Enlightenment.

The wisdom that realizes the actual nature of how things exist

is a wisdom realizing this famous principle in Buddhism, shunyata.

Variously translated in English emptiness, voidness.

Some people say it seems like a despairing kind of religion.

Pessimistic, oh there's nothing, and nihilistic, oh there's nothing.

But in fact, in shunyata the emptiness, the voidness of what?

Buddhists go on, they go on.

You have to find out of what something is empty.

And then it's nothing mysterious at all,

there's nothing mysterious about it.

I am, you are, every single thing, all selves and all things in existence

are empty of an independent existence.

That's all.

Therefore, it's simple you see, therefore things are not independent;

therefore things are dependent and interconnected.

All things are connected.

So the wisdom that comes to see selflessness or emptiness or voidness,

immediately experiences, so we can feel these things.

It's direct and unmediated knowledge.

Immediately feels our connection with all things.

So why would I think about harming that other person, he's me.

Why would I think about chopping down that tree, it's me.

It's in our relationship with all other things.

It's in our relationship with all other things.

And compassion springs from this, there's no way to hold it back.

The meaning of the perfection of wisdom is not to be looked for elsewhere; It exists within yourself. -Master Aryadeva

STUDENTS

What does WISDOM OF EMPTINESS mean to you?

On a conceptual level, I think it's really important

to explore the nature of emptiness from a logical point of view.

That it's impossible that we exist in our own separate islands,

and that we exist from our own side totally.

We are dependent arisings, everything about us

is dependent on a previous moment and dependent on causes and conditions.

And that's the same with everything supposedly out there

is also not there from its own side,

it's not powered purely from its own side.

It has no concrete longevity to it - we're all in process.

We all have a prior cause; we are all in movement,

moving to a new effect, which is the cause of the next effect.

There's nothing concrete about any of this

and the appearance of concrete-ness is ignorance.

That's the thing we're fighting.

The essential antidote to that is

to at least have a strong belief in emptiness.

That things are empty of inherent existence,

they are empty of that solidity, there's empty,

empty of a me-ness, of a you-ness, of an I - ness.

And when you take that, and as His Holiness says

you take the mantra of me, me, me, me, me, me, I, I, I, I, I,

out of the mental sphere it has and incredible transformative effect.

Also, you start to understand the interconnectedness of all things.

Even on the simplest level,

there is nothing that we see around us that we did totally ourselves.

Now being able to detach a little bit -

having some experience of emptiness, even if it's imaginative,

you can detach from that kind of an identification with emotion

and with mind-sets that create a kind of static solidity

to all events and situations.

So clearly as an actor, I have got to be able to do that all the time.

Moving in and out of seemingly operatic emotional

and conceptual situations

and try to maintain a sense of cleanliness about it all.

That it is in the end just a narrative - it's just a story.

And the story comes and it goes.

But, that space that it emerges from remains.

That is solid and that's that space of openness and clarity, of knowing.

It's uncontained, there's no center there's no boundaries.

So, again the more that you're able to see

this dream-like illusory nature of this narrative that kind of emerges

and intoxicates us in its kind of mysterious and magical way -

if you can see that for what it is,

at the same time kind of generating a stability in this other space

which is much more expansive and certainly loving,

life's problems tend to fall away.

I think it helps me get less emotional about things.

Not dull or indifferent,

but just less attached to my feelings towards something.

Because how I'm seeing it, is only according to my karma,

and if I like it, then I can be happy with my karma.

If I don't like it, I can be unhappy with my karma.

But, having it, having the emptiness is like, that's a real refuge.

That's the liberating part, knowing that what I see,

if it's horrible and terrible and having a bad time, it's ok.

It's just what I'm experiencing right now,

nothing to do with reality, nothing to do with something that is there.

I think it's really taking refuge in the emptiness of myself,

of everyone, and of the things I see.

Wisdom decides what truth really is. From wisdom comes freedom. - Master Arayadeva

Please dedicate the positive energy generated by listening to these teachings,

so you can quickly attain Enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.