7. Taming the Mind

December 1, 1999

REFUGE IS AN INNER CHANGE

Yesterday I said I was going to recite the requesting prayer to Lama Tsongkhapa, then I recited something else! I’m not sure what happened.

[Rinpoche recites the requesting prayer to Lama Tsongkhapa]

As I explained yesterday, with the meditation on refuge and generating bodhicitta, this one stanza, you first think of your own samsara, of all the sufferings, that is explained in the teachings. You first think of your own samsara by thinking what “samsara” means. Then, at least think of the three types of suffering: the suffering of pain, the suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering. At least these three, whatever you can think. If you can think about other sufferings, if you can elaborate on them, that’s better.

In this way, what you are supposed to do is generate the useful fear of samsara, and along with that fear, the wish to be free from samsara.

Now, think of other sentient beings, the numberless other sentient beings, how they are in the same situation, suffering in samsara. Try to get the whole idea of the suffering of samsara that others are experiencing.

Feel it is so unbearable that they are trapped in samsara, experiencing the oceans of samsaric suffering. Now generate compassion, not only wishing them to be free from all the suffering and causes but that you yourself will cause this. You will cause all sentient beings to be free from all the oceans of samsara’s sufferings and all the causes of the sufferings.

Think of the hell beings. Generate great compassion for the hell beings. Generate great compassion for the hungry ghosts, great compassion for the animals, great compassion for the human beings, great compassion for the gods and demigods, great compassion for the intermediate state beings, for all the sentient beings whose minds are obscured. Generate great compassion for all of them.

Now think of the qualities of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. They have all the power to save you from these oceans of samsaric sufferings and particularly the lower realms’ sufferings. Not only can they save all the sentient beings from all samsaric suffering and its causes, they have the power to help you, to guide you in order that you can liberate all the sentient beings from all suffering and its causes.

Now, with this faith that they have the power to guide you, with your whole heart, completely rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. When your mind is in this state, in this experience, that is refuge. The mind feeling this way is the refuge that you have in your heart.

Generating these thoughts and totally relying on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, with these three causes, use your understanding of the useful fear, and the compassion and devotion to the Triple Gem—that’s what taking refuge means.

Taking refuge doesn’t mean changing the color of your body from white to black or from black to white, or changing your nose, making your nose a different shape or different style, instead of down, making it up. It’s nothing like that. It doesn’t mean having hair a mile long or no hair at all. It doesn’t mean any of these things. Taking refuge is a mental thing, it’s a quality of mind.

It doesn’t mean covering your whole head with hair or having a shiny head, with no hair at all; it doesn’t mean any of this. In other cultures, the external change is regarded as very important, like wearing ladies’ saris or putting colors on the nose. In other religions external change is often very much emphasized. If you do that, it means that you belong to that religion. But in Buddhism, what you do outside doesn’t define what you are. How you change the outside alone doesn’t define having refuge in the mind.

Even if you are able to recite all the hundreds of volumes of the Buddha’s teachings on sutra and tantra and all the commentaries by both the ancient Indian yogis, the pandits and the highly attained Tibetan lamas, even if you know the entire Kangyur and Tengyur by heart, that alone doesn’t define having refuge. You can do all those things but the mind remains completely dry. There is not even a single wish to be free from samsara, not even the slightest faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Even with no thought to rely on them, you can memorize all these texts and maybe recite and explain them all. Whatever change that is done externally, that alone doesn’t mean you are a Buddhist, that alone doesn’t mean having refuge in the mind. There are big differences.

The verse that I recite before the teachings:

Do not engage in any nonvirtuous action, negative karma,
Engage in perfect virtue.
Subdue your mind completely—
This is the teaching of the Buddha.

The most important thing in Buddhism is taking care of your mind, subduing your mind, taming the unpeaceful, obscuring, disturbing mind. Taming it, pacifying it, controlling it.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ROBES: SUBTLE IMPERMANENCE

Why then do monks and nuns wear robes? Why do they need a different way to dress? That is called “dancing,” not in the daytime but at night! When there’s nobody in our room, not even ourselves! Anyway, what we believe is not there, it doesn’t exist at all. The way we hold onto the I is not there. It doesn’t exist day and night, anytime.

It has never existed. Not only doesn’t it exist now, it has never existed before. There is no time it has ever come into existence. That is impossible. That is not the I that exists, the one that is doing the meditating, the listening, the reflecting, the eating, the walking, the sitting, the sleeping, going to the toilet and so forth.

At this point, maybe we haven’t done much meditation on this emptiness, we haven’t analyzed the ultimate view. Maybe what I’m saying now is for those who haven’t studied or meditated much or who haven’t heard teachings on emptiness, who are maybe thinking, “If this I doesn’t exist, then what else exists? What else can exist? There’s nothing left, there’s no I left. If this I that I believe now, that I hold onto, if this I doesn’t exist, then what else is left?” Some of you might wonder like that.

So anyway, going back. Monk and nuns wearing robes is not superstition; it is for protection. The ordination that they have taken includes the vow to practice, and this is to remind them of the vows. All this is for protection, to remind them to practice in daily life, to live in the vows. How does it protect them? By reminding them to live in the vows they have taken. The robes signify the lamrim, especially renunciation. They especially signify renunciation.

They are to remind the monk or nun to remember impermanence and death every day of their life, to remind them of the Wheel of Life. Yesterday, I just gave a very rough introduction to the Wheel of Life. When we see a drawing of the Wheel of Life held in the mouth of Yama and are asked to meditate on it, we should get the feeling, the idea, that sentient beings must always transmigrate under the control of karma and delusions. And not only that, they have to experience all those sufferings that come in three types: the suffering of pain, the suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering. So, we get the whole idea of the meaning of “transmigratory being,” the whole idea of the suffering being, including the evolution signified by twelve links that are on the outside of the drawing. In brief, the Wheel of Life holds that meaning, that explanation, when we recite the term “transmigratory being.” We should think, “I’m going to benefit transmigratory beings.”

The whole of the Wheel of Life is held in the mouth of Yama, the Lord of Death. That shows wherever we reincarnate in these six realms or in samsara there is nothing that is beyond the nature of impermanence and death. Since we are born in samsara, we are bound to impermanence and death. Life in samsara is in the nature of impermanence and death. After we are born, we have to die.

Not only that, everything is changing, including our body and mind and all causative phenomena—the surrounding people and material possessions, all these things. Not only are they changing day by day due to causes and conditions, being under the control of causes and conditions, they are changing, decaying, hour by hour, including our body and all causative phenomena, they are changing and decaying even minute by minute, even second by second, even within a second. Even within every second, our body and mind and all causative phenomena—the people around us and all material possessions, including beautiful flowers that we see—all things are changing and decaying.

Because they are changing within every second, they are decaying even within every second, that is the subtlest impermanence; it is the nature of impermanence. Because they do not last even within a second, they don’t last from minute to minute, from hour to hour, from day to day. That’s how they don’t last, how they decay, although this is not noticeable.

This is another hallucination that we have. We notice it only when there is gross change, like becoming old, when we notice our hair changing color, our skin getting wrinkled and we are getting clumsy. We only notice the changes when they are very gross. Only then do we discover the change. Otherwise, we don’t notice the change, the decay, hour by hour, we don’t notice the change, the decay, minute by minute, we don’t notice the change, the decay, second by second. We especially don’t notice how everything is decaying within every second.

WE HALLUCINATE A PERMANENT, INHERENT I

Then, we don’t notice that there is the hallucination, the appearance of permanence. The appearance of permanence is projected onto impermanent, causative phenomena, just as our mind projects the inherently existent appearance onto the merely labeled phenomena—the merely labeled I, the merely labeled enlightenment, the merely labeled hell, the merely labeled nirvana, the merely labeled samsara. Our mind, our ignorance, projects the hallucination on these things, making them seem real. Even though everything is merely labeled by the mind, right after we perceive the object, our ignorance immediately decorates or projects the hallucination, something real, inherently existent, independent, something that has never come from our mind.

The object we have made in our view is totally false. In our view we have made our I totally false. Although our I is merely labeled by our mind, it appears to us as not merely labeled by mind, totally false.

In other words, even the I comes from our mind. How? It is merely imputed by our mind, but, immediately after that, ignorance, that always leaves a negative imprint on the mind, projects onto the merely labeled I an inherently existent appearance, an independent appearance, something not merely labeled by mind.

It’s like when we have bile disease, we see a white conch shell as yellow, or we see a white snow mountain as yellow. Or when we have a fever, we sometimes hallucinate that things are upside down or we see things that are not there, especially by eating hallucinatory plants, drugs and so forth. While the mind is under the power of the substance, the hallucination pervades the mind. When the power finishes, the hallucination stops.

This is similar to a magician with a powerful mantra that can illusion our mind, making us see a hallucination. Ignorance is exactly like that magician with the mantra illusioning our mind. Not knowing the ultimate nature of the I, the mind and so forth, ignorance leaves a negative imprint on the mental continuum, projecting the appearance of inherent existence. Right after the mind has apprehended the merely labeled phenomenon, ignorance immediately projects the hallucination of inherent existence on that merely labeled phenomenon.

Then. we believe it! By leaving a negative imprint on the mental continuum, ignorance illusions our mind; we have this appearance that is not true: the I appearing as not merely labeled by mind, as well as all phenomena—hell, enlightenment, everything. Even though everything exists being merely labeled by the mind, because of this projection, we have the appearance of not being merely labeled, as something real, as existing from there, which is totally false, which is totally nonexistent. Nothing, even the size of an atom, exists in that way. Everything is completely empty, totally empty, of existing in that way.

It’s very good to think of our ignorance, this concept of inherent existence, as a magician. Using the example of the external magician is very good. From beginningless rebirths until now, because we have not eradicated this ignorance, this magician, it has been illusioning our mind. Because our mind is illusioned, that’s why we have all this illusion from beginningless rebirths until now.

This illusion that things appear as inherently existent can only be ceased when we become fully enlightened. This hallucination is there until we achieve enlightenment, except when we become an arya being and enter the equipoise meditation. During those meditation states, when our wisdom directly perceives emptiness in equipoise meditation, only at that time, there is no hallucination; there is no appearance of inherent existence. Other than that, all the time, even at night when we dream, we have the illusion, the hallucination. And during the daytime, when we’re not dreaming, there is the illusion, the hallucination. We get up with the hallucination, with the total hallucination, the completely false world, where the I, action, object—everything—appears as not merely labeled by mind, even though the way they exist is being merely labeled by mind.

Just as, through their mental power, the magician can make people believe the illusion, ignorance, as the magician, by leaving the negative imprint on our mental continuum, causes us to have this hallucination, this illusion, from birth to the death, from beginningless rebirths up to now, up to enlightenment, except when we become an arya being for the duration of the equipoise meditation.

WITH EMPTINESS WE SEE EVERYTHING AS LIKE A DREAM

But of course, if we were to realize emptiness, the ultimate nature, by developing that wisdom, we would be like that magician. While the audience believes the illusion that they see is real, the magician might have the same appearance, but they don’t believe that it is true; they know it appears by the power of the mantra. So, for them, there is the appearance but no belief.

After we have realized emptiness and developed the wisdom, we see everything as a dream, including our I, including the doer, the action and the object—everything is like a dream or everything is like an illusion.

The magician also has all those illusions but they don’t believe they are true; they don’t hold onto them as true. Believing the illusions are real, we get attached to them. Because the magician sees they are not real, even though they have the appearance, they don’t believe them to be real and so there is no thought of clinging onto them.

When we have realized emptiness, by developing the wisdom seeing emptiness, we still have the same hallucination of inherently existent appearance, of things being not merely labeled by mind, but we have recognized—here, in our heart—that all of these are totally false, they are objects to be refuted, there is nothing true. While we are eating food, while we are walking, while we are shopping, while we are traveling, while we are talking to people, while we are having a party, while we are meditating, studying, whatever, constantly there is the understanding, the realization, that all of this is not true, that the way things appear, including the I, all this is not true. The difference is that. There is still the hallucination but there is no belief in it. There is no mind holding onto it by believing it’s real.

Because we don’t believe it is real, because of our realization that things are empty, there is no base for the arising of attachment, anger or any of those delusions, those afflicting emotions or disturbing thoughts. Generally speaking, it is like that. We don’t see any reason to get angry or get attached because that is not real. From the point of view of that wisdom, getting attached to an object or getting angry or something doesn’t make any sense at all. It is totally childish.

It’s like when somebody in the desert with great thirst sees there, in distance amid the sand and bright sunlight, the appearance of water. For that person, there is such strong attachment for that water and they rush to drink it, strongly believing it is real water. Not only is there the appearance of water, but they believe in that appearance, and because of their thirst, they develop strong attachment to it. And they fear that somebody might do something to the water before they reach it, like an animal making the water dirty or something.

Another person has the same appearance, the appearance of water, but knows there is no water there, that it’s a mirage due to how the hot sun hits the sand. They understand that there is not a drop of water there.

So, there are the two people. One person believes in the real water and therefore is both attached to it and fearful that it will be spoiled by others playing in it or animals making it dirty. The other person understands there is no water, even though they also have the appearance of water. When that person sees how attached the other person is to the water and how angry they are at those who could spoil it, they think of that person as totally childish and their attachment and anger as nonsense.

It is similar. After we have realized emptiness, the appearance is the same but our understanding is different; our recognition of the object is different. We understand it according to the reality. Before we realize emptiness, how we understand the object is totally wrong. We think we understand the nature of the object, but that is totally false; it is not according to reality, it is against reality. Having realized emptiness, even though we still have the hallucination, our understanding is according to reality, according to the ultimate nature of the phenomenon. The understanding of the object is correct; it is according to how the object exists.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ROBES: WE ARE IN THE JAWS OF THE LORD OF DEATH

Now, going back to impermanence. My subject got scattered. The robes are to remind the monk of nun of what is significant to remember. They are supposed to remember impermanence and death in everyday life, that their life is in the nature of impermanence and how they live in the mouth of the Lord of Death.

It’s like a mouse in the mouth of the cat. At any time it could bite down and swallow the mouse. Or like a frog living in the mouth of a snake. I think maybe this way is better, with the snake and the frog. You can remember when the frog is in the mouth of the snake. The frog is there, with huge, terrified eyes, held so strongly by the snake. Its body has already half gone into the mouth of the long snake. There is no choice; there is no way to escape, nowhere to go. It tries very hard but there is nothing it can do.

We should remember this, to remind ourselves that our life is in the nature of impermanence and death; that we are in the mouth of the Lord of Death and his jaws can be closed at any time. That means death can happen at any time. The nature of life is being in the mouth of the Lord of Death, like the drawing of the Wheel of Life, meaning life is in the nature of impermanence and death, and the jaws can be closed at any time and death can happen at any time. Because death can happen to us at any moment, we must remember mindfulness, in particular renunciation.

The lower robes also have significance. I think they signify the three higher trainings. The basic one is the higher training of morality, which is the foundation, that is like the piece of cloth that is at the bottom. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I think the lower robes signify the foundation of the higher training of the morality. Geshe Sopa Rinpoche explained all this, but I don’t remember now.

Therefore, in Buddhism the external appearance is not the religion. Other religions might regard this as their religion, but not in Buddhism. Wearing robes is not superstition. There are all these reasons to help the mind practice the path. We have to understand it that way.

I was meant to do refuge, to do bodhicitta, but again it’s become blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, I’ll stop there. I just wanted to mention some things.

THE UNIFICATION OF EMPTINESS AND DEPENDENT ARISING

The only reason the Buddha descended on this earth is to benefit us sentient beings, to liberate us sentient beings from the suffering we do not like, that is undesirable for us.

The way Buddha guides us, the way he saves us from the sufferings of samsara, liberating us from suffering, is by revealing the truth. The great truth he reveals is karma, what is the cause of happiness and the cause of suffering. That is extremely important.

But the main truth he reveals is right view, the ultimate nature of phenomena, that which is the unification of dependent arising and emptiness. He shows us that the nature of the phenomena is empty and dependent arising, this unification. Because it’s empty, it exists; because it exists, it’s empty. Because it is empty, it is a dependent arising; because it is a dependent arising, it’s empty of independent existence. This is the unification of emptiness and dependent arising.

This is the Buddha’s fundamental teaching for all the three levels of teachings according to the different levels of minds of us sentient beings: the Lesser Vehicle teaching, the Paramitayana Mahayana teachings and the Mahayana tantra teachings.

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS AND THE BUDDHA, DHARMA AND SANGHA AS DOCTOR, MEDICINE AND NURSE

The foundation of all those teachings is the four noble truths.

It is mentioned by Maitreya Buddha that the sickness is to be known, the cause of sickness is to be abandoned, abiding in happiness—that is, being recovered from the sicknesses and its cause—is to be achieved and the medicine to be taken is to be relied on. That means that suffering is to be known, the cause of suffering is to be abandoned, the cessation of suffering is to be actualized and the true path that leads to cessation is to be practiced, [which is the four noble truths].

When we have a health problem and we feel unhealthy, we go to see a doctor. By examining us, the doctor tells us that we have such and such a sickness. They explain the cause of the sickness, whether it is from diet or some wrong behavior or whatever. If we wonder what the cause of the sickness is, the doctor will explain.

After the doctor has explained this, if we can become free from this sickness and its cause, that’s real health, that’s being healthy. This is what we can learn from the doctor; that why we went to the doctor, to check if there is a treatment. The doctor gives us the right medicine and we are cured. So, we rely on the medicine to succeed in this.

For all this to succeed, to have a complete recovery from this sickness and whatever are the causes of this sickness, we must have the correct treatment, we must take the correct medicine, and that depends on finding a qualified doctor.

In exactly the same way, in order to achieve liberation from samsara, to attain the cessation of the entire suffering and its causes, we must practice the path, and that depends on finding a qualified guru, a virtuous friend who reveals the unmistaken complete path to liberation. And after we have found them, we exactly follow the qualified guru’s advice, like after having found a qualified doctor we exactly follow the instructions they give us.

THE TWELVE LINKS AND THE RICE SEEDLING SUTRA

In the Rice Seedling Sutra, the twelve dependent related limbs are explained by using the example of the evolution of the external plant.

The first of the twelve dependent related limbs is the unknowing mind, the cognition that is totally the opposite of wisdom. The way of apprehending the object is totally the opposite to the way that wisdom apprehends the object, the ultimate nature of the phenomena.

[Rinpoche talks to a student about the translation from the Tibetan]

This is ignorance. What it simply says is that [this ignorance is the opposite of] the way that wisdom realizes emptiness, the way wisdom apprehends that the I does not have inherent existence, that the I is completely empty.

That is the opposite of ignorance, the way our old mind apprehends it. Putting it another way, our old concept or our sleeping mind, whose continuation has no beginning, our sleeping mind is unaware of what’s happening around us. The sleeping mind is unaware, totally ignorant. In some ways, that’s quite a good introduction to ignorance.

A few years ago, I was in London. Because I was meant to be studying English for two months, they found a very nice Irish school teacher. She followed Gurdjieff, the Russian philosopher. There is a group of people in England who are followers of Gurdjieff. This was a long time before 1959, when Tibet [was invaded and the lamas escaped]. At that time in the West, it was extremely difficult to make people understand Buddhism. The karma had not ripened; the people’s minds were maybe not ready to understand Buddhism.

I don’t know if Gurdjieff was a professor, but he went to England—he might have gone to other countries as well—and taught Buddhism but in a kindergarten way. He presented Buddhism in a very simple way, one that the people could understand.

One of the examples he used was the “sleeping mind.” In that way he explained ignorance, using the metaphor of the sleeping mind, saying people are sleeping. This way has great meaning. I thought the way he introduced ignorance has great effect. He understood the point of what ignorance means. Relating ignorance to sleeping gives the essential idea, showing how the mind is dark, totally unaware. He used terms like that to introduce Dharma to the Western people at that time.

Even though he died a long time ago, it seems the group still exists. It is a small group but it has existed for a very long time. My Irish English teacher was not a direct follower of Gurdjieff but a follower of a follower, probably another lady. She introduced me to three things about Gurdjieff, how he tried to explain Dharma at that time to people in the West.

Although wisdom sees that the nature of the I is totally empty, that there is not the slightest inherent existence, ignorance, our sleeping mind, the old mind that we have been living with from beginningless rebirths up to now, apprehends the I as inherently existent, as not empty. Our sleeping mind views the I as not empty of inherent existence but as inherently existent.

There are four schools of Buddhist philosophy, and the fourth one is Madhyamaka School, which has two subschools: Svatantrika and Prasangika. According to the Prasangika School, this view is the root of samsara.

The way this ignorance apprehends the I is inherently existent, not merely labeled by the mind. To make it more specific, this very subtle false object—the object not merely labeled by mind—is the object to be refuted according to the Prasangika School. What the real wisdom sees is it is merely labeled, it is empty of inherent existence, whereas the other view, ignorance, sees it as inherently existent, not merely labeled by mind. That is completely against the way that wisdom realizes the nature of the I.

This ignorance is like a farmer, a cultivator, and the karmic formation or the compounding action—the second of the twelve links—that is motivated by the ignorance is like the field where various crops grow. Everything that happens in life, happiness, suffering, all the various rebirths, all come from this, like the various crops that grow from the field.

Then, the compounding action plants a seed, an imprint, on the mental continuum, on the consciousness—the third link. Consciousness is like a tiny seed from a tree, such as the bodhi tree here in front. From the one small seed that is planted, a huge tree comes, with many thousands of branches and several thousand leaves. Just one seed, but so many things come from that, several thousands and thousands come out.

It is because that small seed carries all that potential. It carries the potential for the continuation of the consciousness. Generally speaking, there are six consciousnesses, depending on which school explains them. Some, like the Mind Only School, talk of seven and eight, but generally there are six main minds and the sixth one is consciousness. That is the one whose continuation goes from one life to another life, and that is the one that carries the imprint. You can say it is like an electric cable carrying the waves of electricity that carry the message from one place to another. Whatever message there is spoken into a telephone is carried by the signal, manifesting in another phone. The wave carries the message or the wire carries the electricity. Probably it’s better to use the example of the wave of electricity and the message it carries or something, meaning the potential it carries.

The consciousness carries the imprints from one life to another. Because there is the continuation of consciousness from yesterday to today, we can remember things from yesterday and from last year, we can remember things from our childhood. When our mind is clearer, we can even remember being in our mother’s womb and even the time of conception. And if our mind is even clearer, we can remember our life before the conception of this life. When our mind is very, very clear, we can remember many other past lives and we can also see future lives.

At present, we sometimes we don’t remember things that we did today, some of the things we forget. We not only don’t remember past lives but we don’t even remember things we have done today; we forget. That is due to ignorance. All that is due to mental pollution, due to ignorance, due to obscurations, the karmic pollution.

Just because we can’t remember some of the things we did today does not mean we didn’t do them. We cannot use that as a reason—because we don’t remember we didn’t do it. That becomes a very funny reason.

Anyway, the consciousness is what carries the potential, the imprint. The imprint, the potential that the consciousness carries determines how this life, from birth up to now and from now up to death, is going to turn out, what kind of life we have, what kind of experiences we have, including this human body. It determines what kind of appearance we have, pure or impure, bad or good. All these things are projections, including this human body, the whole thing. What kind of view we have, what kind of concept, what kind of feeling we get, pleasant, unpleasant, indifferent, all depends on that. The whole thing, including this human body, all the potential is carried by the consciousness. It is like that small seed that carries all the potential of the huge tree with all the branches and leaves.

After that, the sprout comes up, and craving and grasping are like the conditions around the seed, like water and soil, that make the seed ready to produce the stem. Craving and grasping, the eighth and ninth links, make the imprint left on the mental continuum ready to produce the future rebirth. That is the tenth link, becoming, which is like the seed, nurtured by the soil and water, being about to produce the stem.

Before that, there is the sprout coming from the seed. In the twelve links this is name and form, the fourth link. This refers to the aggregates that are forming, “name” referring to the mental aggregates and “form” to the physical one. I guess “name” is used because we cannot see the mental aggregates with the eye. I’m not one hundred percent sure. So, name refers to the mind and form refers to the body, the physical part, the fertilized egg.

Then there is birth, the eleventh link, which is when conception takes place on the fertilized egg.

Then, within the twelve links itself, there is the fifth link, what is called either the six sources or the six sense bases, it’s the same meaning. Whether we use sense bases or six sources, we are talking about the same thing.

Then, contact and feeling, the sixth and seventh links. Then, there is old age and death, which are put together as the twelfth link. It doesn’t mean that becoming old only happens when we die. Old age starts right after the birth. Right after the first second of the birth, the decay of ageing starts. Death does not only happen after we become kind of physically deteriorated. Death can happen in the mother’s womb; it can happen anytime.

This last part—the six sense bases, contact, feeling—I don’t know if it’s related to the rice plant, but up to there, it is.

The conclusion or the main point is this. This clearly shows the evolution of samsara, where this life came from. There is a whole evolution. And the root is ignorance; the root is the sleeping mind, not knowing the ultimate nature of the I. The creator is that, ignorance.

In the evolution of this rebirth, there are the twelve dependent related limbs, and the very first one, ignorance, which is our own mind, is the creator of this life, this body, these aggregates, this samsara. That is the one that creates our rebirth; that is the one that creates the sicknesses of this life; that is the one which creates old age, suffering, death. What creates death is our ignorance, the first link of the twelve links. So, basically death comes from our mind. This is the conclusion we have to understand.

THE TWELVE LINKS: THE THREE DELUSIONS, TWO ACTIONS AND SEVEN RESULTS

Ignorance, craving and grasping are the three delusions, and compounding action motivated by ignorance and becoming are the two actions. So, in the twelve links there are three delusions and two actions. These are the causes.

Then, there are seven results. First, maybe I’ll try first counting them and see how many I can remember. There is name and form, the sense bases, contact, feeling, then old age and death. I left out a whole bunch. What did I leave out? Name and form, sense bases, contact, feeling, old age and death. [Student: Birth?] Birth, that’s right! That’s five, then old age and death is six. [Student: Awareness? Consciousness?]

So, there’s six. With consciousness, there are two ways to include it. According to some lamas’ texts, consciousness, past life’s consciousness, is counted as part of the cause, the past on which the imprint is left. And some lamas count consciousness as a result. If you count consciousness in that way, there are seven results. If you don’t count consciousness, then there are six.

Anyway, there are three delusions, two actions and seven results (or six results). This is the evolution. It shows that this life, this rebirth, this samsara comes from three delusions and two actions. That’s why the body and mind is suffering. That’s the evolution of samsara.

Everything, including this body, these aggregates, and whatever appearance we have in this life—ugly, beautiful, indifferent, whatever—depending on our senses contacting that, all pleasant, unpleasant and indifferent feelings arise. All this world comes from our mind. From what? From our consciousness, the consciousness on which the imprint is left by karma. So, all this comes from our consciousness.

Not only that, the whole of this life, our aggregates, our projections, our views and feelings, how we see people—as friend or enemy—all this, all our views of the place, the whole thing, including our feelings, comes from our mind, from the karmic imprint left on the mental continuum, on the consciousness.

Not only that, our whole world, our aggregates, our views, our projections, our feelings, all these come from our mind, from the root, ignorance. The root of this samsaric rebirth is ignorance.

There is consciousness. Before that, there is karma, and before that, there is ignorance, our mind’s ignorance, not somebody else’s ignorance.

I’m sorry I pointed that way! I didn’t mean to.

This is a very effective way to use the twelve links meditation, not only to realize how all this comes from karma and delusions, how it is created by karma and delusions, but also how all this life comes from our mind: first from consciousness, and before that karma, and before that ignorance.

EVERYTHING COMES FROM THE MIND

Everything comes from our mind.

If somebody changes their mind, if a friend changes their mind or somebody gets angry at us and no longer loves us, that view is our view of somebody’s attitude, how we see someone. It is our view of somebody’s attitude, that they don’t like us, they don’t love us, that they are angry at us. Even that view comes from our consciousness, from karma, from ignorance.

Some people abuse us, some disrespect or harm us, some badly treat us, this view of our mind—our perception that somebody has harmed us, has abused or disrespected us—comes from our consciousness; it comes from our karma, from our ignorance.

There are many very extensive stories of karma that the Buddha explained in the Sutra teachings, why this person suffered like this because in a past life they did this; why this person has such and such success, such a good voice and beautiful body, wealth or whatever, so many things, because in a past life they did this and this and this. There are so many stories of karma, but the essence is that everything comes from the mind. Therefore, our mind is the creator of our life. There is no god or external creator there, some separate being that has created our life, our happiness, our sufferings, our problems.

This is the Buddha’s basic explanation of nature, of the origin of our happiness and suffering, where it comes from, from our own mind. This is the basic Buddhist philosophy: our mind is the creator of our whole life.

And ceasing the suffering, ceasing the cause of suffering, and achieving liberation, nirvana, that also comes from our mind, from the wisdom realizing emptiness. We can also think like that. Enlightenment comes from the wisdom realizing emptiness, supported by bodhicitta, so that too comes from our pure mind. Enlightenment comes from our pure mind.

What I want to mention is this. There is nobody outside to point out, to blame in our life; there is nobody outside to blame for our problems. Problems don’t come from outside; they come from our own mind.

This meditation becomes another very good meditation, a practical meditation on tolerance, on patience. It is a very practical, clear meditation on patience, if we can remember the basic Buddhist philosophy, that there is no other creator separate from us except our own mind. We are the creator of our experience, of our life, of our world.

When we experience problems in our daily life, when there is the danger of having problems, of getting angry and harming other sentient beings, when we project that somebody is harming us, abusing us, our mind labels it and we believe it. Then, without knowing it, anger arises and the thought comes to harm. When there is danger like this, remembering the basic Buddhist philosophy that we are the creator of everything—enlightenment, our happiness, our suffering—immediately we have no reason to get angry, to harm others.

I went on for a long, long time! I’ll stop here.

DEDICATION

“Due to all the past, present, future merits collected by me, three-time merits collected by buddhas, bodhisattvas, all the sentient beings, may the bodhicitta, the source of all the happiness, success for oneself, for all sentient beings, may it be generated in one’s own mind, and in the minds of all the sentient beings, one’s own family members, and all the students, benefactors in this organization as well as all the rest of the other sentient beings without delay even a second, and that which is generated, may it be increased.”

Jang chhub ...

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by buddhas, bodhisattvas and all other sentient beings, may all the father mother sentient beings have happiness, may the three lower realms be empty forever, may all the bodhisattvas’ prayers succeed immediately. May I be able to cause all this to happen by myself alone.

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me and by others, may the source of peace and happiness of all sentient beings, the holy object of refuge, the Buddha of Compassion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and all the other holy beings, have a stable life, and may all their holy wishes succeed immediately. And the same for all my virtuous friends.
 
“Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by buddhas, bodhisattvas and all other sentient beings, from now on, may any sentient being, just by seeing or touching me, or remembering me, just by thinking about me or talking about me, even seeing a picture of me, by seeing, touching, remembering, thinking, talking about or dreaming about me, just by that, may all those sentient beings never ever be reborn in the lower realms from that moment on. May they never ever be reborn in the lower realms in all the future lifetimes and may they immediately be liberated from all the disease, spirit harm, negative karma, all the defilements. May they achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible by actualizing the whole path, especially bodhicitta. In particular, all sentient beings who have sicknesses that have no cure, may they all immediately recover through seeing, touching, thinking about, remembering, talking about or dreaming of me, even seeing a picture of me. Those with diseases such as AIDS, cancer, [mental illness], headaches, arthritis, comas, all those heavy sicknesses, even those possessed by spirits, those who are wild, crazy, may they immediately recover.

“If a person is dying, by seeing, touching, remembering, thinking about, talking about me, may they immediately be able to experience great bliss and joy, and immediately cut away the emotional, terrifying fear of death, and all those terrifying karmic appearances.

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me and by others, may I be able to offer infinite benefit like the sky to all sentient beings by having the same qualities within me as Lama Tsongkhapa has, from now on and in all my future lifetimes.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by all other sentient beings, that which exist but are totally nonexistent from their own side, may the I, who exists but who is totally nonexistent from its own side, achieve my own deity’s enlightenment, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but is totally nonexistent from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist but are totally nonexistent from their own side, to that enlightenment, which exists but is totally nonexistent from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but who is totally nonexistent from its own side.

“I dedicate all my merits to be able to follow the holy extensive deeds of the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra, Manjugosha, Ksitigarbha and so forth, dedicating in the way that the three-time buddhas and bodhisattvas admire the most.

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me and by others, may Lama Tsongkhapa’s stainless teachings, that which unify sutra and tantra, be completely actualized in this very lifetime without delay of even a second within me and within the minds of my own family members, in the minds of all the students and benefactors in this organization, and then spread in all the directions and flourish forever. Due to that, may nobody experience war, famine, disease, death by fire, water, earth, torture, recession, economic problems, poverty and so forth.

“May everyone have perfect peace and happiness and live only with compassion, benefiting each other without any harm. May I be able to cause all this to happen by myself.”

[Rinpoche chants]

So, goodnight. Thank you.